Flame and Vortex
by Seitora
Summary: fem!Naruto x male!Kyuubi romance fic. Reborn from the ashes of his attack, Kyuubi no Kitsune will learn that there is more than just duty; the fox shall learn to live and to love, as he and his container take the world by a firestorm. Possible lemons
1. The Beginning

**Reborn from the ashes of his attack, the great Kyuubi will learn more than just duty; he will learn to live and to love, as he and his container take the world by a firestorm. femNaruto x maleKyuubi**

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**Chapter One – 'The Beginning'**

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**Just an FYI, this isn't in the most technical sense a femNaru/Kyuubi, but it's close. You'll see what I mean by the end of the chapter.**

**UPDATE: This chapter was updated on December 30th, 2009. Some small lone sentences were added here and there to the scene in the council chambers, the conversation between the three elders and Rin, and a few extra paragraphs added in the brief history skim of Rin and Kachu's relationship. The biggest change was the scene where Naruto and Sarutobi have a conversation, which was about doubled in length.**

**---**

Within the chamber that the full council of Konoha met, important civilians and merchants, clan heads and elder statemen all, there was a large buzz of conversation as over one hundred people had come together in answer to an emergency summons. The chatter was quickly cut off as the main doors opened, with two retired shinobi and one formerly retired, all in their late fifties, entering the council chambers.

Only a half a day ago, the Kyuubi no Kitsune had been stopped in its attack on Konohagakure, finally beaten only two kilometres out from the village proper. While damage inside the village had been minimal, only caused by the heavy storms caused as a result of the Kyuubi's power, hundreds of shinobi had been slain in the fight to stop the Kyuubi's massacre, morale was at an all-time low, and they would need to call in temporary help from their allies Kusa and Suna to prevent Iwa or Kiri from getting the idea of invading while they were weak.

The Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen sighed as he faced the members of the shinobi and civilian council, his former teammates turned advisors Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utakane at his side. The chaos that had filled the aftermath of the attack had just died down, as new family and clan heads were elected or appointed to take the former heads' places as council members or advisors. Once the reinstated Sandaime had given them enough time to do so, he had called together all the families and clans to convene for an emergency meeting. He chose his first words carefully.

"Twelve hours ago, the Yondaime Hokage fell in battle through the use of a sacrificial jutsu to take down the Kyuubi no Kitsune." He paused, as his eyes swept the crowd that filled the council meeting room. "For those of you who worry about the Kyuubi reforming and attacking again, don't. The Yondaime was a genius at seals, and for good reason: within the timespan of eight days between the first notice of the Kyuubi's presence on this plane of existence and the end of his life, Minato managed to create a sealing jutsu that summoned the Shinigami, known as the **Shiki Fūin**." At this partial lie of his, several people gasped in the audience, astounded at what seemed to be an impossible feat in summoning the Death God. Inwardly, the Sandaime almost had a grin plastered on at his deceit. The Shodai Hokage had actually been the one who had created the **Shiki Fūin**, and it was a secret seal that only the Hokages were allowed access to, and only a few others knew about. Essentially, what Sarutobi was now doing was releasing information of the seal out to the public, claiming that Minato was the one who have invented it, while in actuality he had been using those eight days to do something else.

"Minato offered his eternal soul to the Shinigami to take the Kyuubi with him. For those who do not know what this means, it means that he and the Kyuubi are said to be forced to fight for the rest of natural eternity in the Shinigami's stomach." He watched several people blanch as they quickly realised the cost of the sacrifice which the Yondaime had made, while others began to reformulate their opinions of the man to put him on an even higher pedestal than before. In reality, his successor was unsure if even the Death God could hold the Kyuubi, proclaimed as the strongest demon in existence, on the level of lesser gods even. Instead, he had spent his days altering the **Shiki Fūin **to seal the Kyuubi into his newborn daughter via a vastly complicated form of the **Hakke Fūin**, Namikaze Kachu, making her a pseudo-Jinchuuriki – while she might be able to use the Kyuubi's yokai later on in life, she would never be a conventional jinchuuriki, granted manifestation of abilities that their demons could use, such as the past two Ichibi jinchuurikis' abilities to manipulate sand, or the rumoured skill of the Yonbi vessel to use lava.

There were many questions that came at the three, Sarutobi in particular, some which he answered, and some he declined due to the need for secrecy on some aspects. As he dismissed the council, he gave up another sigh. Originally, he was going to grant Minato's wish of telling Konoha about his newborn child's status as a jinchuuriki, and inform them of his wishes to have Kachu seen as a hero. However, Minato had made this wish known to him shortly before Kachu was born: his and Kushina's hope for a second son may have clouded his thoughts on Konoha's possible acceptance of his child the jinchuuriki. Furthermore, Kushina had died giving birth to the red-haired green-eyed darling, something that Minato had been unaware of as he went off to seal away the Kyuubi. Sarutobi still genuinely thought Konoha would one day be able to welcome Kachu with open arms, but he knew that all it took was one bad apple to make her life miserable. His decision was further entrenched when he saw the faces of many in the council – miserable, sullen, gloomy and despairing. Many had after all replaced lost family members from the attack. It would not do good to give them something they might latch onto as a scapegoat now. Perhaps in a few years when people had calmed down and mostly gotten over the attack he could announce Kachu as jinchuuriki to satisfy the Yondaime's wish, but not before. It would be like rubbing salt in their wounds.

Besides that, there was still the matter of answering just WHY the Kyuubi attacked, as well. So far as Sarutobi knew, the Kyuubi no Kitsune was the guardian spirit of the Land of Fire, so why would it attack Konohagakure so abruptly? It was something that didn't make any sense for the Kyuubi to do of its own free will unless Konoha was doing something that was disrupting the balance of nature that the Kyuubi guarded, which for the life of them he couldn't think of either. It was even said that the reason the Land of Fire was so blessed with its warm climate was thanks to the Kyuubi's status as the strongest fire elemental in the world, spirit or mortal. Earlier in his office, when he had narrowed down the possibilities, the Sandaime had come to a chilling realization: somebody either had provoked the Kyuubi into its rage, or had controlled the Kyuubi. He couldn't think of anything that a single individual could do to provoke the Kyuubi into going so far as to actually attack Konoha. The guardian of Fire Country supposedly would be able to see through any sort of deception like that, being a kitsune.

Which left him with the possibility of somebody controlling the Kyuubi: to his knowledge, only Senju Hashirama was able to fully tame the Kyuubi (Senju Tenzou, who had been adopted into the dwindling Senju clan after he had been picked up from Orochimaru's experiments and found to be able to control the Mokuton element, had been deployed against the Kyuubi. However, he had been pulled back after it was found he could only neutralize the Kyuubi for a few seconds at a time), and only Uchiha Madara was able to control the Kyuubi. That had chilling connotations to it, and he couldn't help but begin to be even more wary of Uchiha Fugaku, a man who he already disliked on a personal level. That the possibility of another Uchiha having developed a technique that could control Kyuubi was something he did not like thinking about.

It was food for thought, and he would have to take that into consideration when he decided what he would do with the newborn Namikaze. For now, he would have to continue on with his speeches to the general populace, deceiving people into thinking the Kyuubi was truly gone.

---

There were only seven people who Hiruzen Sarutobi would trust with the true secret of what his successor Namikaze Minato had done to the Kyuubi. The first was his perverted student, Jiraiya of the Sannin, who would need to know about it anyways; Jiraiya, although overshadowed by his own genin student, the Yondaime, still eclipsed Sarutobi in fuinjutsu. If something ever went wrong with the seal holding the Kyuubi within the young Kachu, Jiraiya was the first person to go to for troubleshooting. Besides that, Jiraiya was the girl's godfather, which meant that he had his duties and responsibilities to live up to. The second was his other, semi-loyal student, the Slug Summoner Tsunade, who unfortunately had been out of town when the Kyuubi attacked (Sarutobi despaired over how many lives could have been saved if she was in Konoha at the time). She and Kushina had gotten along fabulously, and in lieu of Kushina's ability to sometimes take care of Naruto, if Tsunade was around, she had oft babysat the first child of the Yondaime. The third was Tsunade's apprentice/adopted daughter, Shizune, who was usually privy to most of Tsunade's dealings, and could be trusted to keep it secret. However, the latter two were non-factors at the moment, as they it would most likely take a couple of weeks for them to return to Konoha, requiring them to first hear about the Kyuubi attack, and then actually coming back. That was if Tsunade actually chose to return voluntarily in the face of the devastation wrought upon the village her ancestors built. She would probably break down as soon as she heard of Minato's death.

The fourth and fifth were his childhood genin teammates, Homura Mitokada and Koharu Utatane. They tended to be a bit more hawkish than he did, but he knew that they would also think logically; the Kyuubi was the most powerful of all bijuu, and jinchuuriki that were trained to be weapons never turned out well. Reports out of Suna during the Second Great Shinobi War about their Ichibi jinchuuriki, along with the former Gobi jinchuuriki in Iwa, not to mention the current Mizukage, justified that conclusion. They would support him in taking steps to ensure that Kachu would be raised as a human being, and not a weapon, and that she would only become a kunoichi like her mother if she wanted to. Most especially, they knew well enough not to leak word of Kachu to Danzo. The former Hokage candidate kept well hidden the figures on how many ROOT he had, but there were a few of his ninja who had snapped and gone on a rampage from their conditioning. If a jinchuuriki did it, he or she could cause far more damage.

The sixth and seventh he knew he could trust, but he was wary about telling: they were the two remaining members of Minato's genin team. Hatake Kakashi had already lost both his parents when he was young, one who had committed suicide in disgrace when he had put his teammates above a mission, then later on his genin teammate, gaining Uchiha Obito's Sharingan eye in the process. Sarutobi had seen it many times before; Minato's death would break the man, and he would lose himself in his ANBU duties, either dying or falling into the darkness in the process. He would not be able to take any sort of adequate care of Kachu, as he would be unwilling to make any more bonds in fear of them being shattered by death. It would take the man at least a few years to wallow in guilt before any effort could be taken to drag him out.

Nakamura Rin, on the other hand. As Sarutobi thought about her, a plan slowly began to build up in his mind, something he would need to run through with Homura and Koharu and finetune before he would implement it.

Unfortunately, there was one person he could not tell under any circumstances about either the Kyuubi or Kachu's very existence: Namikaze Naruto. The boy already knew about his parent's deaths, and would have assumed that his 'unborn' sister was dead in the womb. To hear that his entire family was dead, and later finding out that his sister was alive? That sort of emotional upheaval could break him entirely. He would probably latch onto Kachu like she was life support, and never let go. As much as it broke Sarutobi's heart to separate the two remaining members of a family that had just been torn asunder, both who would grow up for the next few years unaware of the other's existence, he felt it had to be done.

Sarutobi latched onto his earlier thoughts about Nakamura Rin. Yes, it was an excellent plan, and it was also perhaps the only option he had available at the moment. Letting out a deep breath, he called for his teammates to discuss his idea.

---

Walking into the Hokage's office, Nakamura Rin couldn't help but be intimidated by the three figures who sat before her. With their greying steel hair and (in the case of the males) beards and hunched bodies, one could hardly call them intimidating, but knowing of their reputations was enough to cow her. Executing a swift bow, she spoke up, "Hokage-sama, honourable elders, you summoned me?"

It was the reinstated Sandaime who was the first to talk. "Yes, we did, Nakamura-san." Hearing the Hokage use her family name made Rin flinch a little bit. Sarutobi had _never_ called her that, even when he was in his first stint as Hokage and Minato was still only a jonin-sensei. Either it was because of the presence of Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura that he was being so formal, or it had to do with her duties and her reason for being a kunoichi of Konoha. "As you may be aware, only a few weeks ago you filed notice that you have done five years as a kunoichi of Konoha, and have thus finished the exchange program with the Shrine of Fire."

_No luck there_, Rin thought to herself. The exchange program that the Sandaime had spoken of was one that had been going on for the last three decades; as part of a cultural, spiritual and knowledge exchange, priests and priestesses in training at the Shrine of Fire located in the heart of Hi no Kuni would come to train in the ways of the shinobi in Konohagakure no Sato. Conversely, pre-teens with certain qualifications received basic training at the Shrine. Konoha ninja would better understand the philosophy of non-aggression, meditation and spiritual attunement, and knowledge of the more mentalenergies the shrine-goers used, while those from the Shrine would be able to understand why the shinobi could and would kill, and their attunement with nature and usage of chakra. Rin was one such priestess-in-training who had gone through the program, becoming a kunoichi for half a decade, and going through the heartbreak that was the Third Great Shinobi War and now the Kyuubi attack. The purple marks on her face were an indicator of a regular priestess of the Order of Fire Monks and Priests. "So you want me to stay in Konoha for a while longer?" She asked, brushing her brown bangs out of the way of her chocolate-brown eyes, and tucking them behind the hitai-ate on her forehead that identified her as a kunoichi of Konoha.

"Not quite." This time it was Koharu who spoke up. "Rather, it has to do with the teachings we know are preached there." Leaning forward in her seat, she seemed slightly afraid of what she was about to say next. "Is it true that the Kyuubi no Kitsune is supposed to be the Guardian of Hi no Kuni?"

Rin could practically feel her body becoming numb at that question. Ah. So that was what it was about. It wasn't one she truly liked to answer, but she wanted to be honest. "Not quite, but close." Not wanting to allow the three elders to obtain any misconceptions, she quickly continued. "Kyuubi isn't the guardian of Hi no Kuni as its modern political boundaries go, but rather of where the multiple fire countries were during the time of the shinobi clan wars. Konoha is still within those geographical boundaries, though." Biting her tongue, she continued on. "So yes, Kyuubi shouldn't have attacked. His doing so runs anathema to our teachings."

The wizened Sarutobi reclined back in his chair, glad that he had opted for a softer chair as opposed to his old wooden one when he had outfitted the Hokage's office again in the last week. "I see." Gaining a few moments' worth of comfort, he sat back up into a straight position, clasping his hands together. "Very well. Nakamura Rin, I am assigning you a final mission, but it requires a lengthy debriefing. Everything I say from now on does not leave this room, and is classified as a double-S class secret."

Rin practically let out an 'urk' at that. S-Class secrets were punishable by death for leaking. SS-Class went far beyond that, however, resulting in the perpetrator being captured, interrogated, mind-raped, whatever needed to be done to obtain the identities of any else who learned the secret, with all of his or her close family and friends being killed as a precaution. It was ruthless and excessively violent, and she had hoped never to hear one, but it seemed that she fit into the grand scheme of events some way.

Rubbing his beard, Sarutobi continued, "Minato believed that the Kyuubi was being controlled by somebody." Homura and Koharu merely gave shakes of their heads, indicating that they already had heard the theory but were still disbelieving of it, while Rin tried to let out a gasp, only for it to catch in her throat. Such an idea was unfathomable. The nine-tailed demon fox, the greatest non-celestial power in existence, being controlled? That was unfathomable. Disregarding her abject expression, the monkey summoner continued on. "In the past, only the Shodai Hokage has been able to neutralize the bijuu, and only Uchiha Madara has been able to actually control Kyuubi." Here, he narrowed his eyes, starting straight into Rin's own pair. "You can see why we worry about the possibility of another Uchiha gaining that type of power, particularly if he or she actually used it to attack the village, perhaps going so far to hide their tracks as to direct the Kyuubi to kill several Uchiha."

Rin couldn't help it. She let out a bitter, insane laugh. The three elders looked a bit perturbed, but otherwise let her be as she grasped her head, collapsing to the floors in maniacal chuckling and sobs. It took a few minutes for her to snap out of it, but she finally did it. Rising up, she saw that her superiors were willing to let her keep her dignity and not speak of the incident ever again. "So an Uchiha tried to destroy Konoha. At least Minato-sensei sealed the Kyuubi away in the Death God's stomach, unless you think the Uchiha could control another tailed beast." Seeing the three elders give each other a nervous glance, she felt her stomach dropping down in her torso like a block of lead.

"Not quite," the as-of-yet unspoken Homura started. "That involves the other half of the double-S class secret." The kunoichi of the former Team Tobirama, Koharu, took the lull in his speech to get up from her chair, and walked over to the corner of the room. Rin followed Koharu's movements, and let out a small gasp when she saw a crib. How had she not noticed it before? She was a jonin, for crying out loud. Her situational awareness should have been able to pick it up. An elaborate genjutsu, perhaps?

The shocker of the hour for the purple-brown-haired Rin, however, was when Koharu picked up an infant from inside the crib, and brought it over to Rin, who was startled speechless when she saw the red hair, whiskered cheeks and feminine facial features. "I-....is this...?" She trailed off, unwilling to complete her thoughts.

"Yes. It is. As you can see," Sarutobi answered her unfinished question, "It is indeed Minato and Kushina's daughter, although unlike Naruto, she takes strongly after her mother. But, well..."

"Minato sealed the Kyuubi in his daughter, who is now an orphan with Kushina's death in childbirth." Koharu was quite blunt, and Rin was trembling again as Koharu parted the blanket around the newborn girl to show a spiralling seal of black ink that was practically pulsing around the girl's navel. "You are only the fifth person living to know this, after us three and Jiraiya-san."

"I...I see," Rin said, before letting out a hiccup, the torrent of emotions inside her threatening to burst. Before her was the last remaining remnant of her sensei, after his son. "But what do you want me to do about it?"

Homura, Sarutobi's male genin teammate on the Nidaime Hokage's genin team, interjected at this point in time. "The girl's birth name is Namikaze Kachu, daughter of Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina. However, we are willing to pay a tidy sum of money if she goes by the name Nakamura Kachu for a few years."

The point of the conversation hit home for Rin in a moment of sudden clarity at that point. "You...want me to adopt her?" She asked, incredulously. But as she began to think about it, it wasn't quite so ludicrous. Uzumaki Kushina had been practically an older sister to her, having taught her much of her knowledge in the medical field, as well as inspiring her to become a strong and erstwhile kunoichi. While Rin was most certainly not the newborn Kachu's godmother, she felt she owed her big sister Kushina more than enough to raise her daughter in Kushina's stead.

"Yes, yes," Sarutobi said. "We felt that it would be unwise for the people of Konoha to know about Kyuubi's true fate, so soon after its attack." Taking out a pipe, ignoring Koharu's scowl, he lit it and took a puff out of it, the rest of the room waiting for him to be done with his sinful habit. "They would look to her as a scapegoat, while Danzo would doubtless want her as a weapon. Kakashi-kun wouldn't be able to raise her at all, while young Naruto-chan would latch onto her like she was his life support, which in a manner she would be to him. As you can see, keeping her in Konoha isn't the best option at this point."

"There's something else to this though, isn't there?" Rin asked. "There's also the matter of the Kyuubi being inside her."

"Indeed," agreed Sarutobi. "The Shrine of Fire is said to be located at the spiritual central of the Elemental Nations, as well as Hi no Kuni, and it is rumoured to be where the Kyuubi watches and guards his mandated territory from." Taking another puff of his pipe, he continued. "There are even some legends that he occasionally appears in mortal form around there, though whether those are urban myths or true tales I do not know. We feel that if the seal is not perfect, or if unforeseen consequences hide, it would be best if the Kyuubi was around where he usually is purportedly located. If he were to awaken from his hibernation, he would perhaps be pacifistic as opposed to hostile to his container, and in the event he should break free, surely he would not attack the seat from which he supposedly guards Hi no Kuni."

"I'll do it," Rin interrupted, as she took Kachu out of Koharu's arms. She had held far heavier things before, but the last female Namikaze seemed to exert a pressure on her that she could barely keep up with. She kept the weight supported anyways. She wanted to do this. Kushina and Minato-sensei had given her so much, this was the least that she could do to pay them back. "But...how do you want me to raise her?"

"I'd like to say to raise her as you think best," Sarutobi admitted, "But I doubt we can hide her forever. Sooner or later she will have to learn of her heritage, and if she at all wishes to see her parent's home, or meet her brother, she will expose herself to publicity. Even the Namikaze name will make her a target, but if it is found out that she contains the Kyuubi, others may want her for different but still malicious intentions. Raise her as you would your own daughter, but also make sure she is well-prepared for what may come. Teach her in the combat useful ways of the priestess, and in the methods of the kunoichi." Taking one last puff out of his smoke, he finished off. "We will of course fund you for this SS-Class Mission, which we want you to undertake for ten years before you can return to Konoha with Kachu. You can tell your fellow priests and priestesses that you adopted a newborn orphan from Konoha. Will that work as a cover story?"

"Of course," Rin nodded. Feeling the conversation at an end, she gave a short nod in lieu of a formal bow, with Kachu in her arms. "May I leave, honourable elders?"

"Yes, yes," Sarutobi responded, as he took out several packets of documents and handed them over to Rin to carry, the latter putting them into a bag. "Those are your files for release from the Konoha military forces, as well as the official papers for adoption of one Kachu, former surname unknown, now Nakamura Kachu." Gesturing to his door, he continued on, "Make sure to take the secret entrance out, you should know which one, Minato spoiled you too much by telling you and Kakashi-kun about them. It wouldn't do for someone to see you leaving with a red-haired infant. Even my ANBU tend to be too loose-tongued at times. I'm sorry to have to ask you this, but please try to leave the city before the funeral and memorial occurs in a few days' time."

Rin saw that as her notice to leave. Taking a short bow, she finished the meeting with an "As you will, Hokage-sama, elders," before picking up the cradle that she had just finished putting Kachu in, as well as her papers, and then heading out.

As Rin made her leave, Sarutobi got out of his chair, startling his two teammates, heart heavy with what he would soon have to do. The funeral for Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina would soon begin. He would be there to give a speech after the minister had ordained the funeral, but it was the person who he had to speak with after that he would have troubles with.

---

"And so, we must remember these brave citizens of Konoha who gave their lives in battle to give us yet another day to live! It is by their sacrifice that we still stand! Remember, that so long as the Will of Fire is strong, Konoha will never fall!"

Sarutobi had to pat himself on the back for how well he could play the audience. Even the slightest boost in morale would help in the following days, particularly for him. He had gotten only twenty hours of sleep in the last week, and he doubted the soldier pills he had been popping were any sort of healthy for him. It would not do to worry his wife.

Just as he had predicted, Hatake Kakashi had been broken by the events of the past week. Already, the man had come to request that his trial run as a member of the ANBU be validated for the normal four year run. It hurt Hiruzen to see the lack of energy in the last Hatake's eye, and the way he methodically moved about, just as he had before he had lost his Uchiha teammate on a mission near Kusa during the Third Great Shinobi War.

But now he was dealing with something he hadn't had to do in a long while; console a child who practically had a broken heart. Namikaze Naruto was red in the face, eyes pink and nose runny as fresh, hot tears ran down his skin, steaming it. His blonde hair drooped over his forehead, with a white sweater with black stripes along the side. Only shorter golden-yellow hair and less deep-set cheekbones kept him from completing evoking the images of a younger Minato. Hiruzen had taken the Namikaze heir into his household as soon as Minato and Kushina had both passed away, but unfortunately had not yet been able to interact with the child; instead, his son Asuma and his daughter Rika, who had both babysat him when he was younger, were taking care of him again (with Asuma going through the gruelling pace of missions that the aftermath of the Kyuubi attack had mandated, however, it was mainly Rika who was looking after Naruto).

"I...I wasn't able to do anything." The blonde was sobbing, the ice cream treat Sarutobi had had his secretary fetch for the boy melting in his hands, uneaten. "I made a promise to kaa-san, and I....I broke it..." Not seeing anything suitable in sight, Naruto had used the wrapper for the ice cream to blow his nose, unwilling to use his sweater.

"Oh?" Sarutobi asked Naruto, caught off guard when Naruto had mentioned a promise. "What promise are you talking about, Naruto-chan?" In trying to console Naruto, he had to know the history behind this idle comment. He knew Naruto valued the integrity of a promise, and would do his steadfast to keep a promise upheld until he either satisfied it or was released from it. If he had broken a promise to his dead mother, then no matter he would still be distraught.

Naruto was still sniffing, "Before kaa-san left for the hospital," Here he began to choke on his tears, "She asked me to promise to take care of my little brother or sister if anything should happen to her." In anguish he stared down hard at the ground, only moments away from potentially collapsing underneath the strain of sorrow. "And...and...I couldn't keep that promise. My imouto or otouto...they're gone..." Having discarded the ice cream wrapper earlier, he had moved to using his sweater to wipe away the stinging hot fluids that ran down his cheeks.

If he had thought it a hard decision to make before, now Hiruzen Sarutobi was glad he had already sent Kachu off with Rin. Sarutobi had already taken to seeing Naruto as a grandson, one who he often looked after during the days that he helped Minato with the day-to-day administering of Konoha proper and Minato had brought the young ball of sunshine to work. It would have completely shattered his will to send the two girls away if he had seen Naruto's reaction beforehand. He felt old and helpless; all that he could do now was to comfort the newly-orphaned Naruto by patting him on the back, and gripping his shoulder with a comfortable hold.

Finally, the well of tears slowed down, and Naruto was fine enough to ask, "So, what's Jiraiya-kyofou doing?" Jiraiya had not been around for the Kyuubi attack, but had only managed to make it back a few days after. He had examined the seal that Minato had used shortly before Sarutobi had handed Kachu off to Rin, having proclaimed it as a job that even he was barely able to decipher, and as a work of genius.

Anxiety gripped Sarutobi's heart as he thought about the best way to answer this. "Jiraiya said that he would only stay for the funeral, unfortunately. Your godfather has to leave Konoha to do his work again, Naruto-chan. We're all very busy right now, and will be busy for quite some time, I'm afraid." The other hidden villages would doubtlessly be eager to elbow their way in and steal some of Konoha's business in the wake of the Kyuubi attack. With manpower low and money being needed to rebuild infrastructure and re-establish their business connections, intel and anti-intelligence operations were some of the Hidden Leaf Village's most important and valuable resources at the time.

Naruto held back another stream of tears at this, and instead sniffed again. "So am I staying with you and Asuma-nii and Rika-nee still, jiji?"

"Well," Sarutobi responded slowly, "Asuma-kun originally asked to leave to undergo training for becoming one of the **Shugonin Junishi. **However, he has said he will be staying around for a bit until we get back on our feet. Rika-chan is of course dating, you know that. Unfortunately, I'm busy again," He tried to tread around his words without upsetting Naruto by reminding him _why _he was busy, "So the compound isn't always full, and several of my relations were killed recently." Sarutobi sighed, tracing a pattern through his facial hair. "I can keep you around for a while longer, but when Asuma leaves, I suppose it would be best if I had you live with Yamanaka Inoichi, and Inoka."

Naruto just looked up, and nodded, complacently. There was another bullet dodged for Sarutobi. The Yamanakas had taken about the least amount of damage out of any of the clans from the Kyuubi attack. Their compound was the furthest away from Kyuubi's approaching point, and as their shinobi and kunoichi were mainly interrogators, infiltrators and seducers and seductresses, they were hardly a fit to fight the Kyuubi, and so instead were held behind to help with the civilian evacuation and relief. This made them the most ideal family to temporarily take in Naruto whenever the Sarutobi Clan became too busy and too low on time and resources to take care of him. Then of course there was their relation with the Namikazes.

Inoichi, who had been good friends with Minato during their academy days, a friendship which had continued up until Minato had become the Yondaime, would be a good fit for raising Naruto. Additionally, his firstborn daughter, Inoka, was the same age as Naruto, and was almost like a sister for the golded-haired boy. The two were the best of friends, along with Uchiha Itachi (silently, the Sandaime pondered whether or not he should try to break up that friendship), and the three could make a potentially strong genin team if they graduated together. It was such a shame that Hiruzen couldn't really trust any Uchiha currently, as well as Kachu's departure from Konoha; Inoka had recently gained a new sister, Ino, and Itachi a new brother, Sasuke. The trio could have had a second generation following right behind them, but for the Kyuubi attack.

Sarutobi shook his head again. It wouldn't do well to regret again.

---

Growing up, Nakamura Kachu was taught how to appreciate nature's beauty. The crisp fresh air of spring, the fluffy white snow of winter, the lazy warm days of summer, and the colourful leaf-filled afternoons of autumn, all spent in the Shrine of Fire and the mountains surrounding it. At the age of five, she had seen enough seasons to declare that all of them were her favourite.

She had also in the process became quite the inquisitive child, often wanting to know the answers to whatever questions popped up in her noggin. In a place where the youngest of the Shrine inductees who were currently in training were at least ten, and the place was often peaceful as priests and monks meditated daily and otherwise tried to achieve enlightenment, as well as documenting both philosophy and science, Kachu was something different. Her tireless energy and occasional prank annoyed a few, but most everyone saw her as a little sister or niece, and doted on her with a great amount of affection.

Kachu realised early on that her mother seemed to be hiding several things from her. When she went over the teachings of the Fire priestesses, being taught by her mother in the process, entire sections would get skipped while material that wasn't in the books would be introduced. Why would she want to learn the reason people such as shinobi and samurai took up their profession? Most mysterious was how, when she went to her daily prayers to pray to the kamis above that had blessed the land, why her mother had always been fidgety when the pair went to worship the Kyuubi no Kitsune, celestial guardian of the fire lands?

A turning point in their relationship had been when her kaa-san had nearly had a break-down one day, when Kachu had learned the most simplified of basics about genetics; the curious girl had asked Rin what her father had been like, and if it had been him that she had inherited her red hair and green eyes from, as opposed to Rin's purple-brown hair and her chocolate brown eyes. Most mysterious were the three whisker marks that adorned each cheek. Kachu had wondered why her mother had dodged around the question for a few days, until Rin finally told her the truth: she had been adopted.

Kachu had had a fit over that, and locked herself in her room for a few days. It was Rin's constant banging on her door and her begging to let her in that had pushed Kachu to finally realise she still loved her adoptive kaa-san, and had declared the elder Nakamura was her real mother. Rin had practically broken in tears at the gesture, called Kachu her beloved musume, and the two had quickly made up.

Kachu had occasionally questioned her mother about her real parents, who Rin had implied she had known, but would often get vague answers. Although Kachu was naturally suspicious, she would let it slide. However, on the occasion Rin would tell her a little bit about her real father and mother.

Tonight was one such occasion.

"Your father...he had blonde hair and blue eyes," Rin told her daughter, as Kachu was in the bed, listening in awe. "His hair wasn't the bleached blonde Kaori has. His was more of a dark golden blonde. His eyes were always a wonder to look at. They were the color of the sky on a clear day. But, your mother. She was where you got your looks from. Bright red hair, like the color of the red sunset or of a crackling fire. Bright green eyes."

"Sugoi..." Kachu said in silent wonder, before something occurred to her. Without really thinking, she voiced her thought, "Kaa-san, what happened to my real parents?" Too late, she realised her mistake, as she saw her mother freeze up. Quickly trying to retract her question, she said, "No, no!" in a panic.

Rin quickly moved to calm her daughter, putting her index finger at Kachu's lips to quiet her. "Hush, musume. You deserve to know the truth." She sighed, putting her hands in her lap. "I was a student of your father in martial arts. The village he was a part of was attacked by a barbarian, and both of your parents died while defending it. They requested that I take you in so that you could at least know true love."

Rin was a bit worried about telling Kachu about this, as she had told her adoptive daughter a heavily modified version of what had really happened; the truth would probably scare her daughter into a shell that she might not come out of, as young as she was. Her worries were assuaged as Kachu quickly hugged her. "Oh, musume, there, there," she said, reassuring the both of them as she pat Kachu on the back. After awhile, she put Kachu back to bed, pleasantly surprised to see that Kachu had already fallen asleep. It was hard to relive her past, painful as it had been. She was just glad that Kachu had never thought to ask about the whiskers that were on her cheek, making her resemble a fox.

If Rin had known exactly what would be happening to Kachu in her sleep, however, she might have been willing to keep the both of them up a bit longer. As it were, she didn't, and so the fates were allowed to progress with their plans.

---

Despite her self-knowledge that she was dreaming, Kachu still couldn't help but be amazed at the scenery she found herself drawn into. She was standing on top of some tame grass, green plains as far as she could see interrupted only by a few coniferous that dotted the landscape, with one such member of an evergreen species being right next to her vantage point. Expounding on the beauty of her surroundings was a cloudless sunset, its multiple hues of red and orange and pink and yellow casting a nostalgic feeling over the setting, as if she had found a paradise that she hadn't until now realized she was missing. Off in the distance, the full moon could be seen, though it would only make its presence fully known when the sky was no longer dominated by daylight.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" A voice came from behind, startling her. Whirling around, she came to face a young boy, about the same age as her, walking towards her with his arms tucked behind his back, dressed in a sandy brown robe, the hood thrown back. Like her, he had red hair that reached his shoulder, and ;arge green eyes: however, where her hair was a vibrant, fiery red, his took a darker tone, leaning towards a crimson, almost bloody red shade, and unlike her bright emerald eyes, he possessed twin forest-green irises, complete with slit pupils. What truly struck her as odd were the three whisker marks that adorned each cheek, the middle line slightly longer than the outer two on both sides. It was strange, his appearance, as if he was the yang to her yin, opposites, yet the same.

So struck by his appearance she was she barely caught his next words. "As light slowly surrenders entrenched ground to the ensuing darkness, the two sides clash with each other, producing such a show," he said, with a wave of his arms to the descending sun. "The process goes the other way as come the morrow the light makes headway into the shadows, only to repeat the cycle once again the following eve."

Despite being only five, the philosophy of his words wasn't lost on Kachu, though she had to struggle to make meaning of some of the larger words. Still, she found it a bit disconcerting: this boy also seemed five, yet he was thinking of things like this. Perturbed, she asked the only question that could come to her stoked thoughts. "Who are you? And what was that all supposed to mean?"

The boy visibly blushed, realising it rude to have not introduced myself, and was thrown off-kilter. "Forgive me, dear beauty," to which Kachu in turn blushed herself, "But I'm Kaen. Might I have your name, hime?"

Kachu, her guard already low over the thoughts of this being a dream, was completely caught by surprise by the honorific, to the point that she found nothing wrong with giving him her name. "Kachu. My name is Nakamura Kachu." It was such an innocent gesture, she saw nothing wrong with it.

Kaen's eyes widened slightly, before a delightful fox-like grin lit his face, his features practically shining in the dying light of the sky. "Ah, Kachu, such a pretty name. As for what I meant earlier, please, ignore it." He seemed to lose a bit of his composure at recalling his earlier babblings.

Kachu couldn't help it when Kaen spout out his first line: her face began to redden even further, and she felt like she was on fire at Kaen's compliments. Sure, her mother had often commented on how she was pretty and beautiful but to hear it from a boy her own age (she had never met anyone in her own age category, she had just been dying to finally talk to one, no matter if it was a boy) was a different matter altogether. Still, all good things must come to an end, and it was here that she unfortunately spoke before thinking ahead, as she broke the moment to pieces, "Thanks and all, but you're not real, though, are you? This is after all just a dream of mine."

She immediately came to regret it as the grin disappeared, and a depressed look crossed Kaen's face, as his shoulders slumped. "Ah, I suppose that would be a problem, wouldn't it be?" As much as Kaen seemed to be trying to reassure himself, it most definitely wasn't working. "Sorry, I guess I should leave now," and with that frank dismissal, he began to walk away.

That put Kachu into a panic, as she quickly tried to find a solution. Turning around and seeing the sunset, she began flailing her arms and shouted out after the retreating figure, "Wait!" Seeing Kaen stopped, Kachu started to blabber in her rush to get him to stay. "Uh, I'm sorry for saying that. Ano, would you like to stay here and watch the sunset?" Mentally, she smacked herself at saying the first thing she could think of.

In the way that only interactions between five-year-olds could affect one another, Kaen turned around, the smile back on his face with glistening teeth. "I would much like that, Kachu-chan."

It was quite comedic at how quickly the situation had been rectified after it had unfolded with the two having each made a faux pas. Their hostile interactions were quickly forgotten, as for the next hour was spent with the two children on the ground wordlessly watching the sun set beyond the horizon and the sky darken; their mutual silence had arrived by an unspoken agreement not to embarrass themselves with awkward interactions. What had started out as the two sitting separately moved to the two sitting next to each other, hands held together, Kachu slightly leaning into Kaen's shoulder for body warmth as the night chill started to set in an innocent gesture, and finally Kachu lying down, her head in Kaen's lap again innocently, the latter absentmindedly stroking her red hair, up until the last sliver of the sun dipped underneath the sky. Kachu never noticed it when she fell asleep in her own dream.

Kaen did, however, as his vessel's body began to fade away into mist. The contemplative look on his face gained from watching the sunset was erased as sadness dominated at the loss of his newfound companion's company. Bitterly, he thought, standing up, _I'm sorry, Kachu, for what has happened and its effects on your life. I can only hope you let bygones be bygones and forgive me when you find out who I truly am._

Silently, he thought as he looked up at the full moon above, he hoped she would. Even if it was a result of the process that had de-aged and was still de-aging his mentality, he had felt better in that single hour of sitting together than he had in the past few centuries.

---

**So, this is the beginning chapter of my latest Naruto fanfic. This is a big, BIG twist on the common Naruto/Kyuubi pairing – instead of being a yaoi (eh, Living Paradox is the only guy who's done anything decent in that category) or Naruto/FemKyuubi pairing, it's a femNaruto/Kyuubi pairing (but as I said at the beginning of the chapter, it's not technically a femNaruto/Kyuubi, since Naruto actually exists in this story; Kachu is his little sister, so in a sense it's an OC/Kyuubi pairing, but whatever). To my knowledge, there are probably a handful of these pairing fics on the site, mainly like half a dozen one-shots and a couple that died out by the third or fourth 1000-word chapter. By doing this pairing and actually doing it justice I guess I'll be breaking new ground here (see the end of the A/N here for all the femNaru/Kyuubi pairing fics that I know of)**

**Please note that the narration on this story might be a bit odd, though; it'll be more of a past tense narration than present-tense. I've burned myself out a bit on Naruto, so this time around I'll be writing scenes so Kachu will be doing stuff like describing what happened to her in the past day, as opposed to actually living the scene. A lot of stuff will be glossed over and shortened in the same manner, so at times it may seem more like a bunch of Kachu/Kaen oneshots stringed together in between significant story arcs.**

**A lot of the early non-relationship story that will be going on is what I think would've happened if the giant plothole that was the first 100 or so chapters of the manga was resolved; fundamentally the biggest thing that would've happened was that Naruto would've been properly trained from an early age, especially to control his/her jinchuuriki powers, which of course will happen here in the case of Kachu. Of course, since I'm changing the early stuff, that chain reactions into later events. Of course, as this is AU I'm throwing in my own mix of twists.**

**As for Naruto's sister's name, Kachu, having 'Naruto' as the protagonist's name is obviously not an option, (and even if Naruto didn't actually exist it still sounds a bit too masculine for my liking), having a copy-cat name like Naruko or Naruki or Natsuki or even Natsumi is just eeeh and unoriginal, and other really out-of-the-way stuff like Haruko (what the...) or Shiki are still far too meh. Kachu at least sounds androgynous and is Japanese for 'vortex' which fits well enough with the water/wind/swirling stuff-elements that Naruto and his parent's names all fit into. I also want to differentiate from the fact that she isn't an actual female version of Naruto, or a twin sister. Of course for the Kyuubi no Kitsune's name, 'Kaen' translates to 'flame', so there you have your title drop. The name Kachu is also a double-entendre, as it can also translate to mean 'in the flames'.**

**Now for why Sarutobi tells the council that the Kyuubi was taken along with Minato into the Death God's stomach instead of the truth about Kachu's status as a jinchuuriki, there are a few reasons, with it mostly boiling down to that Kachu is a girl. First and foremost, Sarutobi may genuinely believe that the village might obey the Yondaime's wish for Kachu to be seen as a hero, but he also realises there's a problem with that: even if the village WERE to do so, there would still be a few bad apples, and all it takes is for one bad apple to take advantage of Kachu (I think you know exactly what I'm implying here) and boom she's traumatized for life. For somewhat close to the same reason he doesn't want anyone who takes guardianship of Kachu, aka. Rin to have to fend off assassins (in addition to any knives from within Konoha, there are also enemy nations who don't want Konoha's jinchuuriki to grow up and/or believe that Kyuubi's seal is a conventional seal that releases him if he dies, as opposed to dying along with his vessel, and therefore would rampage if set free in Konoha). Do I think that Sarutobi is really that shallow? On this issue, yes. In canon he basically did "Oh I'm so sorry we just stopped a giant demon that killed lots of men and civilians and took our beloved Yondaime with it only hours ago by the way here's the boy the Kyuubi was sealed in please treat him nicely." So yeah. I would think that anyone with common sense would at least wait a few weeks for the immediate mourning period to pass until people aren't quite as lost in their emotions.**

**Rin's guardianship of Kachu; honestly, there's no subtle foreshadowing or plot twists or anything to be had here. I just needed something to get Kachu out of Konoha, didn't really feel like doing an OC character, Jiraiya wouldn't work, etc., etc., so I made Rin a priestess in training who was in Konoha on an exchange program of sorts. It worked well enough, considering there's basically no information about Rin at all whatsoever in canon. The family name 'Nakamura' is a common fanon name that I have seen thrown about for her, so if you are wondering about it, that is where I got it from.**

**Finally, there's the matter of Kachu's appearance: vibrant red hair and green eyes, resemblant of Kushina more than of Minato. There are a few reasons I did this; first, I think the fact that basically nobody has Naruto born as anything other than blond-haired and blue-eyed is boring, and I like the words 'fiery' and 'vibrant' which always go well with describing red hair, along with their own set of metaphors (making sunny gold comparisons to Naruto's blond hair and sea blue comparisons to blue eyes gets old). Secondly is a storyline purpose – canon Naruto only needs to lose the whiskers, get deeper cheekbones and gain a few more spikes in his hair to look like Minato. A lot of fanfic authors like to write this resemblance into motivations for Jiraiya or Kakashi or Sarutobi for feeling guilt or staying away from Naruto because it hurts too much to look at him. Not in the case of Kushina, who none of the three would be as attached to or know as well, and so it's a lot easier to ease her into their lives instead of turning away (though there's still a reason provided for why Kakashi can't take care of her in the beginning). Finally, Kyuubi is a redhead and goddamnit who doesn't like the thought of two redheads together?**

**I realise that the scene at the end is probably more than a bit sappy and somewhat unrealistic for their ages, which mainly is my own problem, struggling with trying to write in the mindset of five-year-olds. This is also my first time trying to write something more full-blown on the romance as A Midsummer Night's Dream has only light romance and Rise of a Kitsune is taking forever to get anywhere. So, don't be surprised if there's a lot of fluff and sap, and don't be surprised if it's not quite realistic. Criticise where you see fit, please. I'll be rewriting some of the stuff in this chapter so that it doesn't seem quite so choppy at bits (particularly since it was written over a time period of six months), as well, in particular the constant changes in conversation with the scene between Rin and the elders.**

**Miscellaneous Notes: Naruto is five years older than canon. Sarutobi doesn't know about Madara being alive so he assumes another Uchiha has the ability to control Kyuubi. Some more stuff on Kaen's situation will be shown in the next chapter. Yamanaka Inoka won't be a love interest for Naruto, but her existence will be integral. I already have Naruto's pairing worked out, but it won't be coming into play for a long, long time (OC as well, so don't assume it'll be Anko or Kurenai or Hana). Anybody who reads this story after coming in from A Midsummer Night's Dream, be aware that the Sarutobi and Jiraiya of this story are not the Sarutobi and Jiraiya of that story. They are not as ruthless, exploitative, manipulative, willing to sacrifice for the greater good, etc., so clear out any pre-conceptions that you may have about their motivations and behaviours.**

**As for all the femNaru/Kyuubi fics, here are all that I've seen on (there was another one but it seems to have been removed in the last couple of weeks);**

**Regular Stories: "A Hanyou's Story" by Wandering-Mind 95, "New World! Same Ninja!" (One Piece crossover) by xXKuroTenshi66Xx, "Guardian DeathAngel" (Harry Potter crossover) by HikariAi (up for adoption)**

**One-Shots: "Naruko Dances with the Devil" by Kyuubiboy25, and "Opinions" and "The Inner Thoughts of a Demon" by Escape-reality23**

**One-Shot Lemons: "Wet Nightmare" by Elemental Demon, "A Fox's Love" by Transformations**

**Planning for the next chapter to be up within a week's time.**


	2. True Lies

**Chapter Two – 'True Lies'**

**---**

**I'm working with a bit of a new format here that I might stick with. Responses to some of the reviews to the previous chapter will be put at the end of the chapter, after the author notes.**

**UPDATE: Whoops, I was making a couple of changes to this chapter and accidentally uploaded it as a new chapter instead of replacing the document. Sorry to any who were hoping for a new chapter.  
**

**---**

As grey clouds made themselves known over the village of Konoha, one blonde-haired boy sat in his room, thinking over the last few years.

According to the laws that were established during Konoha's founding, any shinobi or kunoichi who became Hokage that did not already come from a clan would automatically gain clan status for his or her family. For the Shodai and Nidaime Hokages, this did not apply to them, as they already came from the Senju Clan, and Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Sandaime, came from the Sarutobi Clan. However, when Namikaze Minato, an orphan, happened to ascend to the top position of Konoha's military forces, becoming the Yondaime, this obscure law was finally enforced for the first time. As a result, in addition to clan status and all the privileges and duties that went along with it, the Yondaime was gifted with a small tract of land on the outskirts of Konoha, which he used to have a complex built. Minato, his wife Kushina, and his son Naruto had all moved in once it was completed, and he had used his vaunted sealing knowledge to make it one of the most protected places in Konoha.

Following the news of Kushina's second pregnancy, her son, the yellow-haired Namikaze Naruto, had expected to have the number of household members jump from three to four. In a violent twist of fate, however, that number had dropped to one in a single day of disaster: himself. It still pained him to think about that day, when his life had shattered, and the months of depression that followed after it. He had thrown himself into his career as a newly-graduated genin alongside fellow prodigal clan heir Uchiha Itachi and clan heiress Yamanaka Inoka, under Nara Shikake.

Naruto let out a small smile as he thought about his years on his genin team. Shikake, who was the cousin of clan head Nara Shikaku, was one of the few Nara who had made it to jonin status that did not stay in Konoha for intelligence or administrative positions, preferring instead to fight on the battlefield and do regular field missions. The man was still lazy as all Nara were wont to do, but he had been a genius as a teacher, and had pushed all three of his genin students past their limits.

After only a few years, the three were unofficially promoted to chunins. Unofficially, because while the Sandaime and Shikake felt all three were ready to take on chunin duties and responsibilities as well as gaining their respective privileges, Konoha still relied on missions to bolster their economy, and they would rather have the trio show off at a chunin exam in a friendly nation (in their particular case, in Kusagakure) rather than let them go unnoticed. All three of them had done astoundingly well in the tournament portion, though Inoka had fallen after the first match and Naruto and Itachi both in the semi-finals to far older opponents.

The three were easily the best of friends. Uchiha Fugaku and his own father Namikaze Minato, although not the best of friends, were close accomplices, and so Naruto and Itachi had had several playdates when they were younger. Somehow, out of the several clan children that were born around the same time, Yamanaka Inoka had also gotten in on it.

When the Kyuubi had attacked, he had stayed with the Yamanakas, as their clan compound was relatively undamaged, and they had sustained only a single casualty against the demon fox. In comparison, the Uchihas had lost several dozen members, leaving Fugaku in a panic to get the affairs of the clan back in order. Mikoto had just had a second son as well; while the matriarch of the Yamanaka clan had a second daughter around the same time, it was just that extra little push with all the other things going on that prevented her from being able to take care of a child.

Not that he did not enjoy living with the Yamanakas, though. He suspected that Inoichi and his wife might have been trying to set him up with Inoka for the future, but Kami, that would never happen. He could never see Inoka as anything but a sister.

That last thought knocked him out of his current line of thinking, and he looked around his room from his chair. After he had become an official chunin, however, he left the Yamanakas. In the two years since, while slowly working his way up to special jonin status, he had holed himself up in what was now his own complex after the death of his parents, and his unborn sibling. Kachu or Taifu. That was what his imouto or itouto's name was supposed to be. His parents lacked originality in naming, but they were nice names nonetheless. He had been hoping for a younger sister; had imagined her as ending up taking after their mother, with long, fiery-red hair, with girlishly cute feminine features adorned by innocent emerald green eyes. He had always imagined himself fulfilling his capacity as a big brother.

And now it would never be, because his younger sibling was dead, torn away from the world in stillbirth.

These were the thoughts that the now ten-year-old Naruto kept cycling through in his head, as he gazed out his bedroom window at the rainy skies. He realized he was bitter, but it was something he felt he had the right to be. Many of his hopes and dreams were crushed the same night the rest of his family died. The grandfather figure of the family, Sarutobi, had had to take over as Hokage for a second time. Jiraiya and Tsunade had drifted away from Konoha, while Orochimaru had turned traitor. Kakashi had gone into ANBU, while Rin returned to her family shrine. His biological family had died, while his adoptive family had for the most part left him to the wayside.

---

Naruto had many hobbies. He had been inspired by Orochimaru in his thirst for knowledge, but where Orochimaru wished to see immortality so that he could understand, dissect and learn every jutsu in the world in the ultimate hopes of uncovering the secrets behind chakra, Naruto wanted to know _everything_. What made things tick, the cosmic forces that governed the entirety of existence. If the Snake Sannin had stayed loyal to Konoha, he would have found a successor in Naruto.

Currently, he was looking through the notes that his father had left behind before he went to seal the Kyuubi away into the Shinigami's stomach, hoping to decipher what was there already. Few knew it, but Namikaze Minato had had such ambitions for his progeny that he had taught Naruto sealing basics since he was four, even before he began to teach him chakra basics or how to move and fight as a ninja. However, Naruto had held off from looking at his father's final works, not being able to look at Minato's self-sacrificial sealing jutsu before this. Holding off a sneeze from the dust that had settled over the scroll he was currently holding, Naruto continued to look at the papers. Curious. There were a number of obscure characters in what appeared to be a rudimentary form of a spiral-shaped seal. Although he knew this was only the most basic prototype for the **Shiki Fuin**, the final version undoubtedly being held under lock and key by the Sandaime, he would have expected the kanji for 'shi' to have already made several appearances on here, as what else could be used to summon the Shinigami but the character for death?

In fact, the more Naruto studied it, the odder the seal began to appear. This read far more like a container seal than a summoning seal. He had seen the summoning scrolls that all three Sannin had held, and theirs were more of straight lines of sealing characters. Even with the hundreds of complications there would be in calling down the Death God that he knew he knew nothing of, he still could not think of something that would require the shape of the contract to be in a spiral. And why would the Death God need more than to be summoned? Surely the summoner could make a verbal contract for his soul? Why would there be a need to manually seal the Kyuubi's yokai when the Death God would already be taking both his father and the Kyuubi no Kitsune's soul at the same time, which included the spiritual energy that made up parts of both human chakra and demonic yokai?

It unnerved him, and in his seat, he was beginning to feel unsteady. He brought his palm up to his forehead, and was surprised to find sweat. Something wasn't right here. Here, there was a string of characters that he identified as a filtering seal. Why was there a filtering seal for chakra in something meant to call down the Shinigami? It was a truly strong one, by the looks of it; half the characters were foreign to him, something which he naturally assumed to mean it was beyond his expertise.

A horrifying thought struck him. When he had visited the funeral of his mother and father, the Namikaze matriarch's stomach had been smaller than it had during the last few months of her pregnancy. He had never questioned it, but that wasn't right. Wasn't his sister still in the womb? What if she had already been born? He had seen the reports, that his mother had died in labour, but they had never mentioned anything about the newborn being born successfully, stillborn or not. If his sibling had been born, then he or she should have gotten records, a death certificate, and a grave.

That line of thought chilled him as his mind quickly glossed over a possibility. It was one that he wasn't emotionally ready to deal with. But if it was true...He stood up. "Sarutobi-jiji had better give me some answers." He didn't bother to grab an umbrella on the way out. He had already gotten his hopes up. If they were to be deflated, sulking in the rain sounded like a good idea to him. First he would check something out at the hospital, then he would go see the Hokage.

---

Hiruzen had so far had a good day. In the five years since the Kyuubi had attacked, he had worked hard on the recovery of Konohagakure no Sato. The main tenet of his rebuilding philosophy was to get the economical situation under control; large amounts of genin were graduated early, many of who were pushed to work on some of the more physical D-Rank missions. Thankfully, the genin-sensei special jonins (those who had specialized their career in teaching genin squads until it was felt they would be able to sustain their own training and eventually make it to at least chunin status) had mostly survived the Kyuubi attack, with only a few actually being deployed to the front lines to fight. The first batch of new chunins had helped to relieve the beleaguered shinobi who had been overworked in the chaos after Kyuubi.

Although they lacked the talent they had before, Konoha had mostly refilled her military ranks. With the capability to take on more serious missions, the Sandaime had cut lots of the red tape surrounding official missions, and handed some of his paperwork over to Homura and Koharu. Once the money had begun to come back in, Sarutobi took it to continue to rebuild in addition to repaying the loans that had been obtained from the daimyo of Hi no Kuni.

Konoha was once again in the black. Although the events of two years ago with the Kumo delegation kidnapping the Hyuuga heiress had nearly caused a hot war again between the two villages, a last-minute brokered deal had averted the possible start of the Fourth Great Shinobi War. With Kumogakure bound to back off for at least another few years yet, Kirigakure plunged into the midst of a civil war, and Sunagakure tentatively an ally of the Leaf, Sarutobi needed only to worry about Iwagakure. Thankfully, Earth Country as a whole had went through a minor recession a few years back, which would affect Iwa's bottom line, forcing them to bide their time.

With no problems that threatened to once again derail Konoha in the foreseeable future, Sarutobi would admit that he had gotten lax recently in his administration duties. He wasn't quite willing to let go of his career before he had become Hokage, however, and had as such had gotten back into active duty on the occasion. Rokusho Aoi had basically pissed his pants when he realised that the four-man hunter nin squad that had come to eliminate him included the Hokage himself. That had been an important mission for the Sandaime; while he occasionally tried to get his lost student Tsunade to come back to Konoha, he wouldn't make a plea so long as Konoha had allowed one of its own nuke-nins to make off with her great-uncle's, his sensei the Nidaime's prized sword, and hold onto it. It was the principle of the matter, and now that he had the Raijin again he would not be battling his own conscience if he again sent her a request to come back.

He had also gone to the Academy to teach classes a few times, as well, impressing the children with his own in-depth knowledge on the true field of shinobihood. Most of the students there incorrectly assumed there were only three divisions of ninja arts, when there were in fact twenty, one of his most excellent skills being in the field of Bojutsu. Particularly confusing for them was the unfamiliar usage of the term 'ninjutsu' to refer to the traditional eighteen fields of ninjutsu that had been used before the Rikudou Sennin had brought forth the usage of chakra.

It had also helped to take his mind off the constant self-despair that he had over his fallen student. Contrary to what might be popular thought, Sarutobi didn't hate Orochimaru, nor was he unaware, for the most part, of his student's lust for knowledge. Orochimaru wanted to understand everything he could about chakra, that entity and life-force which fuelled all organic substances, his desire to learn every jutsu being an off-shoot of that. Somewhere along the way, however, the snake summoner had trailed off the path, as he became obsessed with immortality.

Even then, Hiruzen wouldn't have minded too much about Orochimaru's experimentations; all the other hidden villages also did some twisted things, and he was no fool to believe that Konoha could hold the moral high ground in that respect. It was when Orochimaru had used orphans left over from the Third Great Shinobi War, looking to understand chakra by trying to implant the Shodai's Mokuton bloodline into sixty infants, that the Sandaime felt his student had crossed the line and virtually exiled him from Konoha.

Though Sarutobi had been unwilling to kill him, yet had marked him as an S-Class nuke nin after breaking into his secret laboratories, he felt there was a sort of unspoken agreement with the snake summoner; if Orochimaru didn't interfere with Konoha's business, then Konoha would only passively hunt him down as a nuke-nin. Hiruzen most definitely was unsure whether the unofficial pact would last, and if not for how long it would stay until it was broken, but so long as the snake didn't harbour malevolent intentions against Konoha, then the Leaf Village would be able to coast along with little trouble. After all, it's not like a major clan would try to pull a coup against him in a few years or anything, right?

---

It was while in the middle of his daydreaming that Sarutobi heard a knock on his office door. Frowning, he wondered who it was, as it was past his normal hours, and his secretary was gone. Although he wasn't any good at chakra sensing, he could tell whoever was behind the door was at least of chunin strength, if not stronger. Discreetly putting away his copy of Icha Icha Paradise, he called out to the mysterious knocker, "Come in."

He most definitely wasn't expecting the son of his successor-turned-predecessor, Namikaze Naruto. The boy looked drenched in his white-with-black-stripes sweater and the rest of his attire, his hair in that messy state where it was soggy but not really wet. He had one arm against his sweater, cradling what appeared to be a scroll. "Hokage-sama," the boy intoned quietly, as he bowed forward to the man he had sworn loyalty to as a part of his allegiance to Konoha.

"Ah, Naruto-kun," the elder man said, standing up. "This is a surprise, seeing you here today. What can I help you with?" Idly, he wondered just why Naruto had indeed come by. He had made more stops at the Namikaze compound despite being busy than Naruto had made stops to the Hokage tower for things outside of official business. Judging by his respectful bow already, it was more than likely official business.

Naruto bandied the scroll he had cupped in his arm around a few times, before beginning to unfurl it. While he was doing that, he began to speak, "I looked in my father's study for the first time since...that day." Seeing the wizened elder's interested look, he began to roll out the scroll on the Hokage's work desk. "This was his last project, purportedly the prototype for the **Shiki Fūin **seal that he used to summon the Shinigami to seal away the Kyuubi in the Death God's stomach."

Something clicked in the Sandaime's mind at the sentence. Naruto had said 'purportedly'. Oh god no, he didn't, did he? Keeping his game face on, he motioned for Naruto to continue, which the flaxen-haired Namikaze heir did. "However, summoning the Death God should require several instances of the sealing character 'Shi', for Death, none of which are on here. I'm curious about why this is, and so I would like to see the final version my father created."

It was only his control over his body that kept his heart from pumping or his forehead from sweating as he continued to play poker. "Ah, Naruto-kun, I'm afraid that unfortunately, the seal your father drew up is a dangerous one, one I wouldn't even put up on the Forbidden Scroll of Seals, I'm afraid that-"

Naruto cut him off this time, "He drew it up as Namikaze Minato, and not the Yondaime, however, and as such the seal's physical drawing belongs to me. I may not yet be allowed to inherit my financial properties yet, but as a chunin, I am allowed to use any of the more dangerous scrolls my father may have owned or donated to your library."

Sarutobi blinked, and quickly tried to find a way out of the situation, but Naruto pounced on his lack of control over the situation. "Additionally, the seal my father has created is truly odd. I've seen the summoning scrolls for all three of the Sannin, as well as Kakashi-aniki, and they were all several straight lines of seals stacked on top of each other. Surely even with the extra complications that are bound to pop up, the **Shiki Fūin **would still be written from right to left, correct? This looks more like the standard storage seal than it would a summoning seal." He then pointed his finger to a small node of the seal. "And this connects to the overall seal in an odd way. This node reads like it filters out chakra, of all things. Why would calling down the Death God require chakra to be filtered?"

The Sandaime froze at the line of questioning, well and truly caught. Unfortunately for him, it was easily noticeable, something which Naruto seized the opportunity of. "I know my chakra anatomy. For the first few weeks after an infant is born, their chakra coils are soft and malleable, but after that they begin to harden, meaning they are virtually invulnerable against chakra poisoning during that time. Conversely, if one was to seal a foreign chakra presence inside the infant during that time, their coils would adjust to it, as opposed to automatically killing them via chakra shock.

Sarutobi nodded dumbly, impressed at how Naruto had investigated, but frustrated that his lies were falling to pieces. Naruto continued on. "Before coming here, I also checked the hospital records for births around that time." His eyes narrowed. "My unborn sibling was not due to be born until late October, but one of the elder nurses there told me that the stressful feeling of the Kyuubi yokai forced many of the women in their late gestation periods into an early pregnancy."

The Sandaime gulped at what he knew was coming, as Naruto erupted into a rage. "WHERE IS MY SIBLING, SARUTOBI! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH HIM OR HER?! I KNOW MY MOTHER GAVE BIRTH, BUT THERE ARE NO RECORDS OF IT!" Silently, Naruto choked, and Hiruzen could see a steady flow of tears dripping down his adoptive grandson's cheeks. "Is it...my otouto Taifu or my imouto Kachu?"

"Sit down, boy!" The Sandaime quickly barked. Naruto complied, settling himself into one of the Sandaime's guest chairs, but his gaze still burning hot. "Calm down, and I will explain it to you." After a couple of minutes, the Sarutobi clan head sighed, and rubbed his forehead. "First off, your baby sister was born at 1805. Her name is Namikaze Kachu."

"Where is she now?" Naruto immediately asked, desperate to latch onto any knowledge of his newfound sibling.

"Calm, Naruto." Sarutobi said, not bothering with the diminutive honourific this time. "As you know, after the Kyuubi was attacked, Konoha was in chaos. We had lost nearly a thousand ninja, and a thousand more were in the hospital, many of which were crippled and ending their career. You were already well-known as Minato's son, so there was no point in trying to hide you, as our anti-infiltration was pathetic. Instead, we put you with the Yamanakas, who at least have a decent guard against possible assassins."

Swivelling about in his office chair, he looked out the window at the rainy outside. "Your sister was in a far more precarious situation, as she was just born. Conversely, however, only a handful of people knew she even existed, so it was far easier to hide her." Turning back around, he faced Naruto again. "You remember your father's genin student, Nakamura Rin?"

"Rin-Chan? Oh sure, she returned to the Shrine of Fire." Quickly, realisation dawned on his face. "You sent my imouto with Rin?" By now, Naruto had begun to well and truly calm down.

"Yes," Sarutobi admitted. "I felt it best if nobody could make the connection between Kachu and her real parents, as Kachu looks just like Kushina. As much as you are a dead ringer for Minato, blonde hair is merely uncommon in Konoha, while red hair is much rarer. Your sister knows herself only as Nakamura Kachu."

"Then..." Naruto began slowly, as if unsure as to what to say, then quickly restarted his line. "Then when is she coming back?"

Sarutobi sighed again, and rubbed his forehead for the second time in the conversation. "Originally, I had planned to call Rin back five years from now." Seeing Naruto's betrayed look, he quickly moved to clarify his new plans. "However, since you now know of your sister's existence, I will have to move that back."

"So..." Naruto began to speak up hopefully, only to be quickly shot down.

"I will not have your sister come back for another two years still, as Rin insisted on teaching her the ways of the priest in addition to the many disciplines of the kunoichi. However," he cut in, interrupting Naruto's look of despair, "I can clear you for a month-long vacation to, say, the famous Kasuga onsens." Of course, the fact that the community of Kasuga surrounded the high hills that the Shrine of Fire was located upon was left unsaid.

Naruto quickly caught onto the plan, but was still stubborn. "There's one thing I still don't get, though. You didn't want me living in my compound for awhile because you were worried about me becoming too introverted, but it still has the best security of just about any compound in Konoha because of the seals. Why didn't you just have Rin and Kachu stay there?"

Sarutobi smiled a wry smile at that. "Ah, Naruto-kun, do you remember what you were like after the immediate Kyuubi attack?" After a wary nod, he continued, "If I had told you about your sister at that point in time, you would have latched onto her and become obsessed with her. She might very well have been the only thing that kept you going. No child can grow in a healthy manner in an environment like that."

"But...still..." Naruto protested vehemently, before the protests died on his lips. Folding his arms together, he finally said, "Fine. I'll take the vacation, but I want my imouto back here in two years, you got that jiji?"

Sarutobi finally sighed a breath of relief, glad that the conversation had turned out as well as it did. "Barring drastic circumstances, I promise that." Realising that they were both emotionally tired, he decided to put things off until tomorrow. "Come back in the morning, Naruto, and I'll give you your vacation pass. I'll tell my secretary to let you in."

"Alright," Naruto said, getting up from his chair. As he made to move to the door, however, he was stopped by a stray thought, and turned around to look at the scroll he had unfurled. "There's one thing I still don't get, though. I'm sure that my father was working on that only a few days until he died. I'm sure that's not the prototype for the **Shiki Fūin,** so what is it?"

That brought a frown from Hiruzen. He was fairly sure Naruto had already puzzled it out, but was preventing himself from truly figuring it out. "You should already know, Naruto-kun, but I can understand why you would not. It is, after all, what could be one of Konoha's darkest secrets."

"Sealed within your sister is the Kyuubi no Kitsune."

---

The redheaded male stood at the edge of a forest line, watching a small glade with frolicking animals. Hearing the rustle of the bushes and crunches of branches and leaves from behind him, his heart rate sped up. He sighed, taking one last glance at the peaceful meadow, before turning around to face the girl who, over the last few weeks, had become an awkward twist of friend, confidante and jailer, even if she was unaware of the last status. It was nice, Kaen thought to himself, hearing her natter on about her daily life, her worries, her relationship with her 'kaa-san' Rin, and the strange mix of her lessons covering both the priesthood and kunoichi life.

"You again," Kachu was the first to speak, her long red hair waving about, glowing a bright red in the trickles of light that made it through the treescape. "This is the fourth time we've spoken. You're not just something from my imagy-nation, are you?"

"Oh?" Kaen intoned, moving in closer to his vessel. "What makes you say that?" This was said in a mischievous tone to indicate that Kachu was right, but he just wanted to hear her reasoning.

"It's obvious, isn't it?" Kachu asked, hands at her hips. "The priests and priestesses here wouldn't stay here if they never had any messages from a kami or from the spirits." Narrowing her eyes, she asked a question that would serve to frame their relationship somewhat better. "You're one of the spirits that live here, aren't you?"

"In a manner," Kaen admitted. "But yes, I'm one of the spirits who usually reside at the temple here."

"Hmmm," Kachu let out a hum, looking in close at Kaen's facial features, making the boy slightly uncomfortable as he began to fidget under Kachu's analytical gaze. "How old are you exactly?"

Kaen let out a slight urk, and quickly thought a way out of the question he had been posed with. "To be honest," he admitted, "I'm not entirely sure myself." Not wishing to damage the relationship between the two, he quickly moved to explain himself further. "Although I have the memories of many years, I'm, uh, like you in many ways. In a sense, I'm sort of a guardian spirit, but by the process in which I was made your guardian spirit, it de-aged me." Not quite wishing to babble on, he paused for a moment, and took a deep breath. "Adults have different priorities than kids. They think in different ways. I had one of the most human ways of thinking amongst all of us, but my way of thinking was reduced to a child not much older than you."

Kachu just blinked for a few seconds, before comprehension dawned on her face. "Oh....I think that I understand." She did understand, and for that, she was glad; she didn't want somebody who had already become her closest friend turn out to be an adult. Kaen, by his own admission, was far older than her, but he had a child's way of thinking. Something he had said though was a little off to her. "Why would I need a guardian spirit, though?"

That was something the kitsune spirit had no problems with answering. "You have a great destiny ahead of you, but great can also mean terrible." Taking one of her hands in between both of his, he gave it a tight squeeze. "If you ever need somebody to talk to, I'll be there for you."

Kachu nodded again, slowly. "What sort of destiny? Kaa-san told me yesterday she used to be a kunoichi, a ninja. Does that relate to this?"

"In a manner," Kaen drawled out, hesitantly. Still holding onto her hand, he slowly sat down, beckoning her to sit down with him on the grass, which she followed. "I'm afraid I don't really know much, however. I doubt you will be a simple priestess, or else someone else would've been sent. Priestesses only leave the central shrine here to help out at smaller temples."

Kachu was silent for a few minutes. During this period of time, she had leaned her body against Kaen again, a habit that had gotten stuck since their awkward first meeting. The third time around, somehow Kaen had gotten to brushing her hair. Now that she was aware of who and what he was, it felt a bit more awkward to have him brushing her hair, but after the first stroke her worries were washed away.

Finally, she spoke up, "Should...I tell my kaa-san about you?"

If she had been looking right at Kaen, she would have seen the kitsune male's eyes glaze over with panic. As it was, he momentarily stopped, before resuming his actions. "No, I would recommend you not tell her about me for now. Doing so would only send her into a panic. Having a guardian spirit is very rare, and would only create tension right now." He paused, and then resumed his chat. "However, you should ask her about her past as a ninja."

"Oh." Was all Kachu had to say. A short while later, she came up with another question. "Will I see you every night now, or less often than that?"

"I will be here whenever you wish to see me," her redheaded counterpart responded.

After that, the conversation drifted off into silence, this time permanently. Kaen let out an internal sigh at his relief over the encounter, before taking in a short whiff of the scent of the girl in front of him. Pleased at the natural smell she exuded, he began to think while his hands continued to work the brush he held. He was beginning to understand just why what had happened had happened, even if he did not like that Inari-sama and the Shinigami had conspired behind his back.

Looking at the girl who was his charge again, he let out a brief smile. Who knew, he reflected, he might be amicable to what he thought their goal was.

---

**Otouto – little brother, Naruto uses this because he's not sure of the gender of his sibling**

**Imouto – little sister**

**Jiji – affectionate honorific for grandfather figures**

---

**First off, I apologise to anyone who is religious who may have been offended at Kachu's line about the priests and priestesses being likely to abandon the shrine if they never got any message from a spirit or kami. I didn't even realise until after I had written it that it could be interpreted as a jab. That said, I originally had the dialogue written so it was less overbearing, but I had to modify it since I was trying to keep the vocabulary of Kachu age-appropriate.**

**That said, Flame and Vortex isn't quite as well planned out in my head as A Midsummer Night's Dream is. This means that while Orochimaru having been a part of Naruto's early years and vice versa will have an impact, I'm not totally sure how much it'll affect the storyline's deviance from cannon. I said this in the author notes for the last chapter, but Sarutobi and Jiraiya aren't the same characters as they are in AMND; this will roughly apply to a lot of other people, and will continue to apply to all other stories I write, so while Oro might end up a psychopathic traitor in Rise of a Kitsune, here I've written him with more of a human bent.**

**I originally thought I was going to have troubles with writing the Kachu and Kaen scene in this chapter, but once I started writing it, the scene actually turned out to be fairly good overall, and not too much sap. **

**There's a line in here somewhere about specialized jonin-senseis. Basically, these are the guys who will take on a genin team, teach them for a year or two, then graduate them to chunins via field promotions and then move onto teaching another team. Logistically, I doubt that at least one out of every three shinobi will make it to at jonin, and not all of them will take on genin teams, so it's either the less-important genin squads get chunin senseis or there are specialized team instructors (like Ebisu, but for an entire squad, and they teach five or six or seven squads). Ebisu is a 'Special Jonin' or Tokubetsu Jonin, which is below a regular Jonin, and he teaches the Konohamaru-Udon-Moegi squad after the time skip in the manga, so I'll go with special jonins being skilled enough to teach along with regular jonins.**

**For any who wonder about when Sarutobi in his inner monologue mentions there being twenty different disciplines of the shinobi, I'm referring to the actual historical ninja. They had eighteen different fields of ninjutsu, where ninjutsu refers to overall compilation of skills – bojutsu is stick and staff fighting, sojutsu is fighting with a spear, ****Chōhō is espionage, etc. Chapter 4 of adrien skywalker's 'Sarutobi Naruto' also explains that somewhat. In Sarutobi's mind, these are the classic eighteen skills, some of them being expanded on by the advent of chakra, while the modern-day inverse usage of the term 'ninjutsu' refers to the manipulation of chakra to do elemental or shape manipulation of any sorts, which is an extra nineteenth field, and genjutsu, manipulation of chakra to create illusions, a twentieth field.**

**Miscellaneous Notes: I know I said I would note why Kaen seems to be particularly mature but also childlishly playful at times (he isn't pretending to be younger than he is or anything) in this chapter but that fell by the wayside with only a minor explanation that's only a part of a greater truth. I'm thinking the big explanation _may_ be in the next chapter, but likely in Chapter 4. Once the next two chapters are out and I can tie a bunch of stuff together nice and tight, you should notice that he never actually lies in this chapter or the previous one, just says part-truths, or twists his words so that a false implication is had.**

**---**

**Review Responses;**

savvy**: true enough, but if I had gone and named the Naruto of this story something like Tai or Taki or whatever and renamed Kachu to Naruko would you consider her to be a femNaruto in that case? There are many many different reinterpretations of the Naruto character; for the most part it's usually the character who has the Kyuubi sealed in him or her. In the rare case that Kyuubi isn't sealed in the Naruto character, then he's usually the son of Minato. If the Naruto character isn't a Kyuubi vessel or Minato's son, then he's usually a blonde-haired, blue-eyed guy with a cheerful personality and undying determination, in which case you may as well just call him an OC with the name Naruto and his characteristics added on (this latter case see 'The One that Wasn't Extraordinary' by 'The Other Side of Darkness' or 'New Wind Nation Waking' by Kyogre). In this case, even though Naruto actually exists, I still consider Kachu a femNaruto since she's still a daughter of the Yondaime and Kushina, still has the Kyuubi sealed in her, and will still be fairly easygoing and energetic all the same.**

GameDemonKing: **I'm pretty sure I sent you a PM about this already but for convenience's sake for the rest of the readers. Naruto's pairing will probably not mean much for the story as a whole, and it's entirely possible it wouldn't even be revealed until the story's ending. It'll also be an OC (no, not Inoka, and no Konoha citizen either), so no Anko or Kurenai (besides for older girls I prefer Anko, Hana and Yugito :P). **


	3. Sins of the Fathers

**Chapter Three – 'Sins of the Fathers'**

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**Alright folks, here's the deal – I love reviews, and even better I love reviews when they have lots of meat and content to them and talk about what their favourite sections are, etc., or point our inconsistencies or criticise beyond 'baw my favourite character isn't potrayed to be perfect'. So the more reviews I get, and the better they are, the more inspired I am to update quickly. People, writers like me THRIVE on reviews, it gives us that sense of satisfaction to know someone likes our work and hopes for more. So for great justice, review! Or else I'll steal a leaf from ToxicManipulator's book and be more subtle.**

**--- **

Even though she was only six years old, Kachu liked to think that she had a good sense of perception, and in all honesty she did. That was how she knew that something would soon be occurring one late spring morning. The Nakamura matriarch, who had just finished her priestess duties for the day, was nervously pacing around. Kachu had never seen her mother do that; Nakamura Rin was always bold and confident in her affairs, and was not one prone to being called 'indecisive' or 'meek'. That the priestess-turned-kunoichi-returned-priestess happened to right now be acting exactly like that worried the younger female deeply.

Kachu had decided to let it be for now, and hope her mom, who in all honesty felt more of an older sister than anything, would finally open up as to what it was that troubled her. She was right to wait; the situation finally came to a head in the afternoon as Kachu was spreading out the strawberry jam for a peanut-butter-and-jam sandwich delicacy. Her small ritual was interrupted as Rin walked into the kitchen. "Kachu-musume..." Rin said, hesitating after speaking the red-haired girl's name, "We need to talk about something."

"What is it, kaa-san?" Kachu wanted to know what was going on right away, but was denied that privilege; instead, she was quickly hushed as Rin ushered her into the small living room that they had in their flat, with a large window pouring in light from the late-morning sun. Obviously this was something important if they couldn't even casually discuss it in their kitchen area.

Rin sighed, clasping her hands together in a habit Kachu noticed was only done when her oldest sister slash mother was anxious, before she finally managed to look Kachu in the eye. "Do you remember me mentioning that your father was once a member of a village, and died defending against an invasion?"

Slowly, Kachu nodded, not quite sure that she liked where the conversation was going, before something clicked in her mind, connecting two prior conversations together. "You said tou-san was a martial artist, but weren't you a kunoichi? So was he a ninja as well?"

The purple-brown-haired woman nodded. "Yes, a martial artist was only part of what he was. Minato-sensei was well-versed in all the varying arts of chakra usage common to the shinobi, as well as the esoteric arts of fuinjutsu, though he never really taught us that." She sighed, letting out a breath that had an almost bitter quality to Kachu's interpretation. "I was on a team of three genin under your father, but one of my teammates died while we participated in the Third Great Shinobi War."

"Oh?" Kachu asked, slightly interested in hearing more about her father, but not really inclined to listening to war stories. Although, the name 'Minato' seemed to click in her head as being somewhat familiar. "What was he like?"

"Ah, Minato-sensei was a good man," Rin responded, a wistful look in her eye and a nostalgic tone in her voice. "He had a strong sense of will, and hated to see any sort of injustice being done. He took great care to reform my other teammate, who had a troubled past. But as for who he was? Well, your father was a man who has been covered to some detail in Fire Country history." Rin took another deep sigh. "Kachu, your father was the Yondaime Hokage of Konohogakure no Sato. Your real name is Namikaze Kachu."

Wow. Having out of habit sucked in her breath for whatever detail the biological Nakamura was about to reveal, Kachu sharply exhaled it, while the rest of her body was paralysed in shock from the information that had just been parted to her. She knew who the Yondaime was. Even up here in the Shrine of Fire, who didn't? Namikaze Minato, the genius ninja who had become the Yondaime Hokage of Konoha at the age of 25, only to three years later lose his life while defeating the invading Kyuubi no Kitsune. Come to think of it, she had never actually see a picture of the Yondaime before, just 'her father', so no wonder she had been unable to connect the two.

It took a few minutes for Kachu's mind to get over the surprise, but when she finally came back down to earth, she had only one question that she could really come up with. "But...why?" she asked quietly. "Why wasn't I raised in Konoha? Why here?"

That was an easy question for Rin to answer, though she had to put it in terms that were simply enough for the redheaded girl to understand. "While your father was seen by many as hero, he also gained several enemies from the war. Villains who would like nothing more than to get revenge on him." She sucked in her breath, unknowingly copying Kachu's earlier action. "With Minato-sensei dead, they would turn their attention to his reputation, or if they had known you existed, his family." Unsure if Kachu would have been able to understand it easily, Rin gave her explanation slowly, practically drawling out the words.

Fortunately for her, Kachu had understood it; perhaps too well, as a form of clarity had struck the redhead. "So I would have been killed if I stayed in Konoha?" That was a chilling thought, death was just that to her, death, total non-existence. She wanted to live! That she might have been killed when she was born was scary.

"Not killed," Rin idly corrected, not wishing to scare the poor girl too much with the information she was imparting. "However, your safety could not be guaranteed. You take far too much after your mother in regards of your looks, and your mother was a foreigner to the village. Anyone who knew her well would be able to tell right away that you were her daughter, and Kushina was well known as being Minato-sensei's wife. If somebody hated Minato, and found out you were his daughter, well, you know..."

"So they would be barbarians," Kachu replied, wrinkling her nose. "Wait..." she trailed off in mid-sentence, before giggling at something else she had remembered, unsure if it was a legitimate reaction or a coping mechanism to onseting hysteria, "So you think the Kyuubi was a barbarian?"

Rin waved her hand in mockery, knowing what Kachu was talking about. "An embellishment," she said, deliberately using a word Kachu didn't know, "I didn't want to scare you with the truth so early in life." In a motherly fit, she got up and hugged Kachu close to her chest.

Kachu let herself be pulled into the hug, but even then she was already thinking at a quick pace. When Rin moved back, to her chagrin Kachu was at it again with a difficult question. "Why now, then? What was so different from a year ago?"

Rin sighed, and walked up from her position to the lone table in the room, and picked up a piece of parchment off the surface. "The Sandaime Hokage, who was the man who took over the leadership of Konoha after the Yondaime died killing the Kyuubi, was also the one who asked me to take you with away from Konoha. Only a handful of people knew about it at first, but recently another person found out about it, and wishes to meet you. Sarutobi, that's the Sandaime, sent a messenger telling me to prepare for this visitor to come within the next week."

All of this new information was almost too much for Kachu. Finding out that her father had been the Yondaime Hokage of Konohagakure, who had killed the Kyuubi at the cost of his own life (idly, another thought she would have to pore over later) and that she had been sent away to the Shrine of Fire with Nakamura Rin acting as her adoptive mother, all in the space of a few minutes, was enough to emotionally exhaust her. She was unsure if she could take any more surprises for a lifetime. She was able to surprise even herself however when the flame-haired girl felt her mouth forming words with confidence. "Who is it?"

Rin sighed again, rubbing her brows with her hands. "Oh, Kachu-musume," and the object of her ministering was uncomfortable at the tone of almost-pity in her voice. Rin looked at her with a tired glance, before dropping what would be the biggest bombshell of the day on her. "You have a brother."

---

The passage of a few days time saw Kachu outside, dozing off on the ground in full view of the sun rays as she looked at the drifting clouds.

It was still a bit hard to all take in. A brother. She had an older brother, who by the sounds of it was eleven, had stayed in Konoha after the Kyuubi was killed and become a shinobi, a high-ranked one currently by the sounds of the letter that Rin had received. The girl couldn't help but feel betrayed by Rin again, and had run out of the room after that revelation, the letter from the Sandaime in hand.

Having again become estranged from the woman she called her 'kaa-san', Kachu had taken to retreating to her room most of the time she was at home. The void in her heart had been filled up by an obsession with reading up on the history of Konoha, and the profile of the Yondaime Hokage, seeking to know everything that had been written about the man who was her father. In all honesty, she felt daunted by his legacy, as well as conflicted; even if the Kyuubi had invaded Konoha for reasons unknown, the kitsune was still THE guardian spirit of Fire Coutnry, and her father had killed it. How was she supposed to be proud of that?

With the fox celestial dead, she doubted it would ever be known why it had attacked, so for now she would stay neutral to the whole affair.

Getting up from her sprawled position, she choked back a sob. But it was still so unfair! Why? Why did the attack have to occur? As naive as it might be, she wanted for the possibility of a whole real family, with both her mother and father alive, an elder brother, and Rin as an elder-sister. What could have been never could be. Kami, it was far too easy to fall into the trap of despairing!

Sniffling, she consoled herself with the thought that at least her brother was alive, and was coming to visit. Yes, in one of the few lines spoken between her and Rin over the last few days, the chocolate-eyed priestess had mentioned to her that Namikaze Naruto could be here any day now. A specific day and time she did not know, but he would be here nonetheless.

Wiping the small stream of tears that had fallen down her face, Kachu was satisfied with the lack of heat on her face that was representative of a red demeanour. She didn't want anybody knowing that she had been crying. Call her foolish, but she wanted to be able to face some of her problems on her own. The outside grounds no longer able to offer her peace as a breeze had blown through, interrupting the heat that beat down on her, she got up, intent on returning to the flat.

"So," a voice spoke up from behind Kachu, freezing her in her tracks, "You're my imouto, then?"

Spinning around, Kachu looked up and came face-to-face with a ghost. The blonde boy strongly resembled the picture of Namikaze Minato that Rin had shown her once, and the pictures of the Yondaime in the books. In fact, were it not for his hair being a shade lighter on the lemon-gold that her biological father had possessed, and the slight difference in cheekbone depths, he could have passed for a miniature of the Yondaime Hokage, down to the shaggy length of his hair. Dressed in a black-striped white sweater and black slacks, he definitely looked out of place at the shrine. But what had the boy just said? That she was his imouto? Then this must have been her brother.

"You...are Naruto, then?" She asked lightly.

A grin lit the face of the boy, and she knew he had been right, they were related. That was the exact same grin she saw whenever she looked in the mirror in the morning, wide, cheek-splitting, able to make her feel better just by seeing it, no matter now if it was her own smile or her brother's smile.

Naruto sighed, rubbing his hand through his hair. "Well, this is somewhat awkward...I'd like to say hello and everything, but that would seem a bit out of place." Bending down so that he was face to face with his sister, he held his hand out. "Hi, I'm Namikaze Naruto, Special Jonin of Konohagakure no Sato."

Her brother was right, Kachu reflected as she went to shake his hand, it was awkard. What were they supposed to do, be all hugs and kisses? She hadn't even known he existed until only a few weeks ago. "Nakamura Kachu, Priestess-in-Training of the Shrine of Fire."

The dam broke for her after their hands parted, as tears threatened to leave her tear ducts again. Whether it was because of the anxiety she had built up in anticipation for this meeting, guilt over the now broken relationship between her and Rin, or any other combination of factors, she couldn't help it. Jumping into Naruto's arms, she began to bawl, "Oh, aniki!"

Naruto for his part was unsure what to do. Usually it had been the one being assured by his mother, Uzumaki Kushina, not the other way around. Seldom did they have to deal with comforting small children on missions, particularly when his genin (and later, chunin) team was often _younger_ than the 'small children'. It was a hard-to-win situation.

Slowly, he did what felt natural to him, and picked Kachu up off the ground. He had no need to hold her up by the waist, as she was grabbing onto his torso, holding for dear life while continuing to cry into the fabric of his sweater. "There, there, imouto" he cooed softly at her, patting her on the back as he began to walk back to her flat, where he had already talked to Rin.

---

It was a bit surreal to meet his little sister at first, but if nothing else, Namikaze Naruto adapted to circumstance. She was still but a child, untouched by shinobi life and tainted only by the what-could-have-beens of the loss of her biological parents, and so he played up to that avenue by playing with her. Currently, she was holding onto him for dear life, as he was jumping quickly through the untamed wilderness of Kasuga's surroundings, hopping through trees, and quickly ascending up the top of a cliff face. Thrilled screams delighted his ears, the shrillness in them softened by his rapidly changing physical relation to the point of origin of each sound wave.

When he had initially come to Kasuga for his 'vacation', he had scouted out the area, and found a small lake that drained out a river, going down a waterfall at the end. It wasn't any sort of majestic waterfall, but that was ok, he could still use it for his training in chakra control and other varying activities.

Now, however, it would serve a use as a tourist stop, more precisely for a total of two. Finding a nice clearing in between the forest and the river up on higher ground, Naruto came to a stop. Looking over his back to Kachu, he quickly gave her a verbal jab. "Kachu-chan, we're here."

The little redhead was slow in extracting herself off his back, and he had to help her in disassembling her hands clenched around his neck, held tight together as they were. Once off, she quickly plopped herself onto the rich green grass. Naruto observed that she looked frazzled by the appearance of her long red hair, a silly grin on her face running contrary. Bending down to come face to face with her, he asked, "Did you enjoy that?"

Kachu was quick to give a "Yes!", with gusto, as she smoothed out her long red skirt and shirt.

"That's good to know," Naruto mused as he put his hand in her hair, mussing it up further than what the snap of wind had done to it already.

When he had brought Kachu back to the flat she and Rin had shared a few days earlier, he was slightly surprised to see Kachu being hostile to Rin, but had already been aware of the possibility, having been informed by Rin as to Kachu's reaction to the revelations she had been told by the elder female. He apologised to Rin; while they had a lot of catching up to do, he already knew her. He didn't know his sister, however, and wanted to get to know her.

She had asked him many questions about Konoha, such as what it looked like, its people, the current Hokage, and about his own career as a shinobi. She seemed to be very eager to know everything she could about her birthplace and him. However, Naruto had not trained with a Yamanaka for years for nothing. He could tell that what Kachu practically gleamed with was not enthusiasm, but desperation. Desperation to understand who she was, perhaps? Regardless, she had not yet asked the questions somebody in her situation would have asked by now. Like stories about her father at the least, and possibly her mother, and stories about his own life.

He didn't know the names of any such conditions, but it seemed like she was already trying to separate herself from him. He would not allow that, _she was his only family_, it was his responsibility and duty to make sure she did not shut herself out from the world. With that in mind, he had invited her along to a day outside of the Shrine and outside of Kagusa, going through the countryside. She still was latching onto him, and had eagerly accepted.

At the very least, he had managed to make her happy by giving her the ride to their current location, and hopefully could repeat the feat on the way back. He had plans to get her to open up here, however.

"Tell me, imoto," he said with his silly grin plastered over his face, "Have you ever gone fishing?"

"Fish...ing?" Kachu asked, trying the word out for herself. Once she understood what he meant, she shook her head. "I've never left Kagusa or the Shrine since I first arrived." And it was rare that she got to visit Kagusa, as Rin was not one to let her go without some sort of safety precaution. Robbed of the ability to make any friends her own age, Kachu had spirit and spunk, but never the initiative to go outside her sanctuary, not knowing the bait and lure that the world could entice those inflicted with wanderlust with.

Naruto did a mocking facepalm, shaking his head. "In that case, I'll have to teach you how." Looking around, he saw a healthy, sturdy tree that stood high, its great height boasting many hundreds of branches. Taking out a kunai, he picked out two such branches on the lower reaches of the tree, cutting them off. As Kachu watched in awed observation, he stripped away all the smaller shoots that had grown off the main section of each branch, and cutting off the ends so they would bend only under a considerable amount of pressure.

Fishing was one of the stereotypically lazy activities that Shikake had enjoyed, and he had taught his genin how to fish with nothing more than a branch, some ninja wire, and a rock, being able to teach utilizing a perfect blend of recreation and survival skills. After all, deep in enemy territory, a ninja is always at risk of running out of rations, and he or she cannot always use chakra to catch their food. They were not in enemy territory, thankfully, and so Naruto was able to take the extra step of using his chakra to sharpen the rocks he had picked out as lure, making them more effective to catch hold of fish as the rocks began to gain hooked ends.

After he was done, he finally handed one to Kachu. "Here, let me show you how to use this," he stated, walking her over to the slow-moving river. As the smaller of the siblings cast her watchful gaze over the larger, Naruto cast his line into the water. "One of the biggest things you have to know about fishing is patience," he mumbled while lost in reverie for Kachu's convenience. "Fish eat smaller fish and other invertebrae and plants that grow underwater, but if they're not hungry, they won't bite. If what they think is 'food' is moving around too much, they'll be reluctant to bite, so you can't be too bouncy with your line."

The pair didn't dwell in silence for long, as Naruto soon got a bite. "When you feel a jerk on your branch, that means you've got a bite, and you can start 'reeling' it in," he droned as he grabbed the ninja wire and began pulling it back. To Kachu's amazed look, a silver-skinned fish flew out from the surface of the water, landing on the ground behind Naruto.

"Sugoi," she cried out. "Can I try can I try can I try?" She jabbered quickly with excitement.

For her efforts, she got a hand on top of her head as Naruto continued to muss with her hair. "Of course, imoto", he said, thrusting the other rod into her hands, before quickly getting behind her, holding her close to him and guiding her movements.

---

The thrill of catching her first fish had pushed Kachu on, and she was undeterred by the long wait she had for her second catch. Soon enough, she was onto her third trout, bringing the total fish between them to four, before Naruto finally called it off.

"What next, aniki?" Kachu squealed in glee, her petite form restraining great energy for what was next. She had easily taken to calling him 'aniki' over the past few days. Whatever difficulties she might have had in asking him more personal questions, he already had begun to feel more like family to her than nearly all of the population of the Shrine. Only Rin and surprisingly Kaen ranked up there with 'Naruto-aniki' now, even if she was having problems with the former nowadays.

"Hmmm," Naruto said, strumming his lips. "Well, first we have to prepare the fish by cooking them, and then we eat." Rubbing his stomach and licking his lips to exaggerate his next line, he told Kachu, "There is little better than fish freshly cooked over an open fire."

Kachu had originally thought his making the rods was something to be impressed about, but that was nothing in comparison to what Naruto started to do next. It would seem so simply in retrospect, but as he gathered broken twigs and fallen tree leaves from the nearby treeline, as well as longer-lasting living branches, putting them together in a small pit formed by a circle of rocks, it was all so impressive to the isolated girl. After he had carved out some of the branches and dug them into the ground, tying some more branches to connect between them, he skinned the fish, putting them onto on top of the array of branches he had built around the pit.

"Watch and observe, Kachu-chan," Naruto said as he took out two square rock-like objects from one of his many pockets. As he rubbed them together, Kachu squeaked and jumped back a bit as sparks flew out from the rocks, a few landing near her present sitting position. Naruto just chuckled, and began to explain, "Ninjas have to carry around certain supplies at all times that can be dead useful if they can't use chakra or modern technology. Ferrocerium, sometimes mistakenly called flint, can be scraped against a metal to produce hot sparks that will produce a flame if done properly." To enunciate his point, he put his hands over the gathered pile of debris, and let some sparks on it.

Kachu quickly moved back in front of the fireplace, and was practically hypnotised by the motions Naruto went through as he turned the innards of the fish around, watching as they began to darken. She couldn't help it, it was all so new to her. Silently, the redhead resolved to herself that when she could find it in her heart to forgive Rin, who no longer she thought of as a mother but as an elder sister, she would ask the brown-haired woman to show her how to do all this.

---

It was later that day, as the sun had begun to sink below the treeline, that Kachu found herself curled up against her brother's body, lazily basking in the moment as the two watched the sunset. She had had a good meal, finding herself enjoying the grubby taste and texture of crispy fish, and hoping for similar experiences to occur in the future.

Naruto himself was just glad that Kachu, the sister he had never known, was warming up to him so quickly. And he still had another three and a half weeks to spend with her, which would hopefully ward off the inevitable ache in his heart that would grow once he was forced to wait another year for her to come home. Even if he hadn't gotten her to ask all the personal questions about her family that he was hoping for her to have yet, he knew he had made a lengthy stride today.

"Neh, aniki," Kachu suddenly began, surprising Naruto.

"Hmm, what is it, imouto-chan?" Naruto asked, wondering what she wanted, turning his head away from the last visible slivers of the falling sun.

"Why is it I can't go back to Konoha with you now?" she asked. "You were five when tou-san...died...and you stayed in Konoha and became a ninja. I'm older than you were now, I know how to control chakra, many different ways in fact!" Far more than the average genin did, in any case. Samurai, priests, monks, ninjas, all did things differently, and she was one of the few who would learn chakra control and chakra techniques from two different callings.

"Hmm," Naruto hummed, mussing with her hair again. He couldn't help but be reminded of their mother by her fiery bright red hair. "Rin-chan wants you to do some more priestess training, which you should find useful if you don't want to be a kunoichi." Idly, the thought entered his mind that it was entirely possible his sister didn't necessarily have to be a kunoichi, free as she was from the influence of her parents' reputations so far. "I suppose Saru-jiji didn't think there was much point in hiding me away, particularly not with all the sealing protections on our clan estate."

"Sealing protections?" Kachu asked, somewhat interested.

"Yeah," Naruto replied, not really thinking ahead too much. "Blood protections that prevented anyone who wasn't related or keyed in from entering the estate were the main ones, but there were several other layers of protections. Unless a person had both tou-sans skill and lots of time, time that one wouldn't be able to get with ANBU patrolling the area every so often, they wouldn't be able to break in. That was where I stayed since I was eight."

"Wait, what?" Kachu asked, suddenly sensing a disconnect in the story. "If the estate was impenetrable, why didn't we just stay there? Rin could have ordained the temple Konoha has instead of coming back here."

She knew something was up as the body she was leaning against suddenly tensed. Looking up to see Naruto turn his head to her, she knew that something was _wrong_ as she saw the pained look in his eyes, and the large gulping of his throat. "You mean...you haven't been told yet?" He asked slowly and cautiously.

Kachu was surprised by that. "Huh? Told me what?"

"I-," Naruto began to say something, only to cut himself off. Raising one of his hands to his teeth, he began to bite one of his fingernails, a habit Kachu had never seen him do before. Finally, he sighed, giving off a forlorn, sad grin. "I don't think Rin or Saru-jiji wanted me to tell you, but..." He sighed again. "Kachu, there's something I can tell you, but you should know it could change your life. If I do tell you," Here, he looked straight into her eyes with a hard look, green meeting blue, sapphires clashing against emeralds, "If I do tell you, I will give you a night to mull over it. You **must** promise me that you will talk to me about it tomorrow."

His behaviour was mystifying, and Kachu wandered what it was that had him spooked so. She had already found out about who her family was and the existence of her big brother within the span of twenty minutes, so surely she should be able to handle this, right? Slowly, she nodded. "I promise."

Naruto shook his head, rubbing his hair, trying to put it off as long as possible, before he finally decided to go cold turkey. "Alright, but you **will** talk to me about it tomorrow, and you will tell me everything you have thought about it tomorrow." Taking another deep breath, he looked back at her, determined to look her in the eye when he said what he was about to reveal. "There's a reason why you had to come to the Shrine of Fire. You see, tou-san never killed the Kyuubi." There was a gasp and a look of horror on his sister's face, but Naruto continued on. "Tou-san wasn't sure if he could even 'kill' the Kyuubi with the self-sacrificial jutsu he was originally going to use, so he decided to instead seal it away. The Kyuubi was too strong, so he couldn't seal it inside an inanimate object, no, he had to seal it inside an infant. A newborn infant. The Kyuubi was first sighted on September 31st, and two days later was confirmed as heading towards Konoha, getting within attacking range of October 10th."

"Sealed within you is the Kyuubi no Kitsune."

---

Sitting on top of the tree branches was one of the few freedoms that Kaen was afforded within the seal that kept him bound. It was the lack of anything solid underneath his feet that gave him a thrill, while lied on his back, looking at the sky or stars, that had prevented him from becoming too self-obsessed with his constant thinking. Darn. There he was going again.

He could remember the collective worth of over a thousand years of memories, but it was as if there had been a thin haze applied over it. If he focused he could remember it, but the memory had become impersonal to him. He boasted years and years of fighting experience and knowledge, but it was difficult to apply. If he was vulnerable to fire, then he would have known not to touch a hot stove from common sense, but he would still touch it. It was difficult to resolve the two, and at first he had been striving to become the great Kyuubi no Kitsune again.

But then she had come along. Nakamura Kachu, she thought of herself as, while in reality she was Namikaze Kachu, daughter of the one whom had called down the Shinigami to seal him away within her. It had been subtle; at first, he had merely intended to get to know her as he had sworn a promise to do his best to protect her. Something had changed, and he was unsure as to how he was to deal with it.

There was a flicker in his surroundings, which he identified as his jailer entering her mindscape. He enjoyed her visits greatly, there was that. Turning around on the branch, he dropped down onto the ground, idly smoothing out his red sweater and green pants. He wondered what they would talk about today.

What he certainly didn't expect was for Kachu to approach him with a grim look on her face. His heart sank at seeing it, surprising even himself at how intense the emotion was. "What's wrong, Ka-chan?" He said cautiously, using the affectionate and punny honourific he had come up with in the last meeting.

"Tell me, Kaen," she said, and his stomach began to sink as well at the sad, disappointed tone in her voice, "Who are you really?"

That stopped him cold. Had she found out? "W-what...do you mean?" He asked, desperately wanting to find the words that could help him resolve this situation.

"Tell me, Kaen," she repeated, grabbing him by the shirt with her fists, and this time her voice was only sad, tears streaming down her angeline whiskered cheeks, "Are you the Kyuubi no Kitsune?"

His own heart was practically breaking that her reaction was like this, but nor could he blame her. Nor would he lie to her. "Yes," he uttered the word softly. He tried to touch her, hoping she would soften up at familiar contact.

He winced as she reeled back from his hands, letting go of his clothing. Through tears, she ground out three words that fractured his soul. "I...hate...you..." she said slowly, clearly having difficulties saying the words. "You killed my tou-san and kaa-san! You did it! I never want to see you again!"

Any efforts that Kaen could have made to defend himself were for naught, though, for as soon as she had pronounced those words and denunciated his presence in her mind, Kachu had faded away out of the mindscape, leaving only the born-again kitsune behind.

"What...just happened?" The redhaired boy said to himself as the situation hit him like a load of bricks. He wasn't able to cope with this, he had never had something like this occur to him before, nor was he able to handle the tidal wave of emotions that threatened to pour over him, drowning him under its fierce pressure. Sitting down, he began to silently let tears go down his own whiskered cheeks, hoping for a light to break through his darkness.

---

**Since this story came out, with only about eight femNaru/Kyuubi fics beforehand that I knew of, three more have come out. I like to pump my ego by thinking I'm a direct cause XD. If another one comes out in the next week I will end up collapsing under my own megalomania, or be absolutely incorrigible.**

**So yeah. "Whaddya mean this isn't the typical 'boy meets girl, have a perfect relationship with no disputes or troubles between them at all, and they grow up and gain a 500% combat bonus for suddenly having a romantic interest with lots of smutty sex in the meantime' Naruo fanfic?" It's one of the things that J.K. Rowling at least managed to achieve that 99% of HP fanfic writers somehow can't seem to understand – couples DO NOT have perfect relationships. They have breakups, they have fights, and they have conflicts. The same goes for Naruto fanfics. You'd think given the average romance fic here that in real life husbands and wives (or girlfriends and boyfriends) never have a spat over anything personal. As far as Kachu is concerned, Kaen betrayed her trust, which he basically did. Poignant, with concentrated childhood angst. Same goes for Rin not telling her about having a brother, though that will be looked at a bit more again next chapter.**

**C'mon people isn't this more interesting than "Naruko has the Kyuubi sealed in her, she gets hit and kicked a lot of times and the Sandaime doesn't bother to do anything about it until she eventually gets raped and either gets psychologically traumatized or else shrugs it off, picks up a casual romantic partner, and becomes badass in black"? **

**The last scene aside, this chapter tired me out greatly. Not that it was me being lazy, but I tend to get really invested emotionally in my characters when I write, and there was definitely a lot of emotional ups-and-downs for them in this chapter. Big conversation between mother-and-daughter, sibling bonding, all that stuff. **

**---**

**Review Responses;**

Anonymous (regarding lemons): **I haven't completely decided on that yet, and if I do I'm not entirely sure whether I will keep it in the main story or put it off in a side document to keep Flame and Vortex T-rated. If I do write one, rest assured (unless you're of the opposite train of thought) that I will keep it in good taste. It won't be so much smut as it will be about the love invested in it. **

Barranca: **That there is something you will just have to wait and see, I am afraid ;).**

GameDemonKing: **Don't automatically assume I'm going to use that. CRA is fanon, and I don't use fanon crap unless I find it convenient to explain a plot point.**


	4. The Value of a Promise

**Chapter 4 – 'The Value of a Promise'**

**---**

**Ack, sorry for the delay. I tried to work on this but it sort of fell to the wayside.**

**A lot of this chapter depends on the mythos that kitsune cannot lie, and keep their promises, so just keep that in mind when you are reading!**

**Review, my minions!**

**---**

Under normal circumstances, Naruto would say that his current activity of juggling several kunai in his hands was 'for training in being able to catch multiple objects moving at erratic angles in the heat of battle.' Most people were smart enough to not believe him, though a gullible few would fall for it when they saw that all three members of Team 3 were doing it.

Usually, Naruto did it to alleviate boredom – in his own little twisted view of the world, what better way to do that than to juggle sharp, pointy objects? Today, however, there were two other purposes to it. The first was closely related: as opposed to alleviating boredom, he needed something to pass the time. He had just finished using the same kunai in a ridiculously complex chakra control exercise, in which he stuck the handles of two kunai to a finger from each hand, before channelling some more chakra down the length of the kunais to their points so that while he was doing a hand-walk across the ground, the kunai would not stick in the soft earth. Although he was able to successfully pull it off, the sheer amount of concentration needed to manipulate his chakra and pull off a task of such finesse had exhausted him, requiring him to take some time to recover from his mental fatique.

The other reason he was doing it was that it was the odd hypnotism the rhythmic movements of the kunais was giving him, lulling him from his hyper-sensitive peak awareness state. No shinobi could be on guard at all times, or else he or she would start seeing shadows and threats everywhere. Between Inoka's father Inoichi and Shikake-sensei, Team 3 knew well the possible effects; insanity was one, burnout was another, with neither being good. Naruto definitely knew he didn't want to shoot his nerves, particularly considering he was only now beginning to come into the prime of his life.

It also allowed his mind to do more of the thinking, taking over from the instincts and natural reactions that had been ingrained into his body. For example, there was the matter of his little sister, Namikaze Kachu. He had briefly thought of murdering the Sandaime shortly after finding out about her for keeping her secret, but had decided that was not a wise idea. It was a good thing that he had not gone through with the plan, or else he would likely have ended up not ever being able to meet the one he called imouto.

It surprised him just how fierce his emotions were in that regard. The only thing that had connected them before had been blood. As a result, he had expected their relationship to start off somewhat awkwardly and be slow to develop. He was partially correct on the first assumption, and dead wrong on the second. Only a week had passed and already he was feeling just like what his mother had once told him he would be; a big brother.

That was food for thought, the flaxen-haired shinobi thought as he threw each kunai as it fell into his left hand in the blink of an eye, the five kunais forming the outline of a pentagon as they sunk into the base of a dead tree.

Retrieving the five kunai, his ear twitched as he caught a sound on the passing wind, one of a soft sob. Intrigued, he put away the weapons from in between his fingers, and focused on the noise, which was getting closer.

Crossing the clearing he was currently in, his unspoken curiosity to the source of the crying was answered as his little sister came in, and Naruto surveyed her appearance. It seemed that she had been crying for quite some time, if her dishevelled hair, and tear-streaked cheeks were anything to speak about. He was about to ask her what was wrong when she looked up at him, showing pink eyes. The next moment, he had to catch her as she slammed into him, grabbing his dark training tunic to use as her own personal handkerchief.

He wondered if the news about the Kyuubi had affected her that drastically, but let the question die on his tongue as soon as he tried to speak. Kachu was currently wailing away, and he knew it was better for someone to let out their emotions when they were sad before trying to talk to that person. He had been in that same position a few times before, after all, and letting out his tears had always lightened the burden of whatever had then weighed down on his shoulders.

It was still an awkward situation for him, however. Slowly, instinctively, he guided his arms and hands around his sister's backside, squeezing her gently to reassure her of his own presence, idly thankful he wasn't currently wearing his hard-to-wash sweater. His action paid off as after a minute, the choking spasms that came from Kachu's body began to lessen in both intensity and frequency, before finally dying out altogether. It was then that Kachu took a look up at her brother, green eyes to blue, and muttered out a forlorn "Aniki?"

"What is it, imouto?" Naruto asked, as he brushed away some of the stray tears left on her cheeks before they could dry up and blotch her skin. Of course, he was sure what the problem was about: the Kyuubi no Kitsune. He had, after all, mentioned it to her just last night. He had intended to give her a night to think over it before talking to her about it, but he had not expected her to have some sort of breakdown over the information if her crying was any tip-off.

"N-Naruto-aniki..." Kachu trailed off, seemingly incapable of saying anything beyond that. She felt like she was about to burst out into another crying fit. Feeling a strong grip squeeze her shoulder, she looked up at her brother again. Seeing him in his confident posture, she calmed down again, letting out a hiccup. "You said otou-san...sealed the Kyuubi in me?"

Ah, so he was right. Sitting her down on the grass, he decided maybe leaving her a night to think about it hadn't been the best idea. "Yes, he did." Pausing, he thought he had an idea of what specifically she might have been thinking. "But that does not make you Kyuubi. You and Kyuubi are separate beings."

Kachu hiccupped again, and shook her head. "I know that," she admitted, trailing off again before speaking up once more. "That I'm not the Kyuubi. But, Kyuubi...I've _met him_ _already_."

---

When Naruto had told her about the true fate of Kyuubi, Kachu had felt her insides turn cold, as she quickly connected the dots. There was only one other being who she knew about that was inside of her, and the parallelism between what Kaen had told her of himself and the story of the Kyuubi cemented the fact that Kaen was the Kyuubi no Kitsune.

In her haste, she had yelled at Kaen. After all, the last few weeks had brought a whirlwind of emotions upon her, on finding out about her real parents, and her brother. Even if Rin nee-san had made a good substitute as a mother/sister figure, the point still stood: it was Kyuubi who was responsible for her parent's deaths and the fracturing of their family, and the Kyuubi was Kaen. She could hardly be blamed for such a thing.

But after she had left, she had begun to wonder: why _had_ Kaen spoken to her all those times in her dreams? Had he been intent on the two getting to know each other before having something like this happen, and goading her about it afterwards?

And yet, she had seen his face as soon as she had left her dream. She had thought he was faking the anguish on his face, but why would he bother? More importantly, Kyuubi was supposed to be a celestial guardian of the Land of Fire, THE guardian. Why had he attacked Konohagakure?

The questions had haunted her throughout most of the night, but she stubbornly refused to dream again, even as she cried in fits. It was as the morning sun rose that she had finally tossed aside the blanket, with one thing on her mind: she would talk to her aniki. Surely he, being five years older than she, would have a better idea of what to do?

"What?!" Naruto hissed as soon as she said those words, quickly grabbing her outstretched hand. "What did the fox say?" At seeing Kachu's wince, he let go of his grip on her hand. "Sorry," he added, but his mind still running at a mile-a-minute on the main topic.

"He never introduced himself as Kyuubi," Kachu revealed. "He showed up in my dreams about a year ago, as a red-head about the same age as me, and said his name was Kaen." Slowly, the dams burst. "I thought he was a spirit of this place, which he confirmed, but..." Here, she bit her lip in worry.

"But even Kyuubi falls into that qualification," Naruto finished the sentence, his face back to its composed state. Had Kachu been even slightly experienced in reading facial language, she would have seen the barely-repressed tic above his eyebrow, or the tightening of his cheeks, but she had only a six-year-old's perception. As such, it was a surprise when Naruto stood up again. "Kachu-imouto," He began, "You said you met Kyuubi in your dreams?" It was rhetoric, but he wanted the question asked to lead into his idea. A nod came, and finally he took a deep breath before speaking again. "Would it be possible for me to meet the Kyuubi no Kitsune?"

That suggestion caught Kachu off-guard. "Y-you can do that?"

Naruto nodded, "I worked with a Yamanaka once, which is a clan that deals with mind techniques that can draw out memories, as well as therapy. As I am not a member of that clan, I could not learn their techniques, but I was allowed to learn the basic ability to intrude upon what is called a 'mindscape' or sometimes a 'soulscape', the bridging point between the mind, body, and spirit. If I were to meet Kyuubi, you would have to come with me." He scolded himself internally after he was finished speaking at his usage of the word 'intrude'. He had an idea, but he didn't want to scare his sister off with such a negative term.

He was in luck, however, as Kachu did not seem to notice. Instead, she was fretful. On one hand, she trusted her brother not to do anything harmful to her, and Kaen did not seem the type to attack her brother if the two met. However, she was still apprehensive about meeting Kaen again. Even though she still felt justified in having said what she had, she was beginning to feel more and more guilt with every passing minute about doing it.

But that was the crux of the matter, was it not? If she staved off from a reunion for too long, she would never have the strength of will to meet the kitsune face-to-face again. Tears threatening to fall again, she looked up at Naruto, and nodded again, "Hai."

Naruto, for his own part, sighed, and hoped the upcoming meeting would go well. "Very well, then," he said, before taking his right hand out and pointing his index finger at her forehead. "**Shintenshin no Jutsu**," he said, quickly feeling his consciousness slip away. While he might know the first part of this technique, the latter part had been forbidden from being taught to him by Inoka.

---

Naruto was mildly surprised at the state of Kachu's mindscape as he looked around. He had not really used this technique very often before, as Inoka was the main person to do this sort of thing. Even Itachi had a bloodline that was predisposed to making it easier for him, as the Sharingan was able to be used to cast and see through genjutsus, which were fields of chakra usage that dealt with the mind, and illusions. As such, it was only by Inoka's constant ramblings that he knew mindscapes were usually sterile, resembling a hospital corridor or a filing room.

In Kachu's case, however, he and his sister were both now present in the stereotypically 'evil' forest. Tall evergreens crowded together, their twisted branches curling around each other to further block out light. A thin haze further prevented visibility. Idly, he noticed that he was wearing a jacket sweater over top of his tunic, protecting him from the chill that seemed to permeate the air.

He paused to say something to Kachu, but then stopped to think about the situation he had just walked into. Mindscapes like this reflected traumatic pasts, yet his sister had been bright and cheerful only yesterday evening, up until he had revealed the Kyuubi's existence within her. Well, she had said that _he_ had taken a human personification within her mindscape, and that the two had known each other for about a year. He would have to tread deftly in this situation.

"Kachu," the blonde-haired boy said as he turned around, bending down to come to eye level with her. Idly, he wiped away the tears that had come with her to her mindscape off of her whiskered cheeks. Getting back up, he surveyed the forest again, noting a small dirt path that led into the forest. Sighing and repressing his own fear at the eerie surroundings, he grabbed Kachu's hand, and led her into the forest.

---

Shortly after entering the twisted forest, maneuvering their way through mist along a single clear path, while dodging the mutated branches of the corrupted trees, Naruto heard sniffling. Walking in the general direction of the noise, he came out to a clearing, and quickly noted the boy in red and green curled up at the base of one of the trees. If the constant shaking of his shoulders was an indication, then the Kyuubi (Kaen, he corrected himself, as that was the name he had been provided with) was in turmoil currently. Still, it would not do for Naruto to let his guard down. This could be an elaborate trap, and he had not survived half a decade as a shinobi without taking precaution against possible traps.

"So," Naruto said, rather nonchalantly, taking off his jacket sweater and letting it disappear. "You are the Kyuubi?"

If Kyuubi (Kaen, he corrected himself again) were playing this as a trap to possess his host's body or escape from the seal somehow, Naruto had to admit the kitsune was playing it well. Kaen looked up lethargically. Spooked at the appearance of a newcomer, he asked, "Wh-who are y-you?"

"It is polite to answer one's question first before asking him your own question," Naruto pressed, not caring if he seemed to be rude just then.

Depressed, Kaen let his head sink down in between his legs again. "Yes, I am. I am the monster who attacked Konohagakure."

Naruto cursed internally. He sincerely hoped he didn't have to deal with someone who was full-blown emo. "Get up, please." Kaen, having had little stimuli to respond to in the last little bit, moved without even thinking, standing up, his body still slouched over.

"Good," Naruto nodded, pleased that at least Kaen's body still seemed to be reacting. Observing Kaen, he could see what a girl might see in him, his dark red hair and forest-green eyes contrasting well, particularly with his red-and-green outfit. He would undoubtedly grow up to be a handsome man (unless he was one already, Naruto reminded himself, thinking about kitsune and their shapeshifting abilities). Looking to his side, he noticed Kachu looking away, and nearly growled. He thought that he was going to have to face the Kyuubi no Kitsune in a battle of wills or something, and now it turned out that he was having to deal with childhood angst.

But, Kachu was his sister, and he would do whatever he could to help her out of this. Even if it meant having to push her into doing something she was unwilling to otherwise. "My name is Namikaze Naruto." He paused, then added, "I am Kachu's elder brother." That caught the redhead's attention. Grabbing Kachu by the shoulders, he forcefully swung her around again so that she was facing Kaen. "I do not know what happened here last night, but apparently the two of you had a misgivings of sort." Oh Kami, was he trying to help his sister and the _Kyuubi_ reconcile?

"He-he killed our parents," Kachu suddenly said. Having gotten those first words out, the floodgates opened. "Then he tricked me into becoming friends with him, -hic- while pretending to not be the Kyuubi."

Naruto pursed his lips. So that was it. Kaen _was_ the Kyuubi after all, and responsible for the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands. However, he was the mediator in this dispute between the two, so he needed to be fair.

"That is as it may be," Naruto said, "But surely Kaen has his reasons for doing both? At least hear him out first."

Both turned their attention to the third person in the forest, who quickly became introverted at the attention. After a few seconds, Kaen sighed, then started talking. "I was...forced...into attacking Konoha."

That struck Naruto hard. The Kyuubi no Kitsune had been _forced_ into attacking Konoha? What could have done such a thing?

Kaen was reluctant to answer what had forced him into his actions, however, as he went onto the next question. "As for tricking you..." He shook his head furiously, "No, I didn't mean to trick you, Kachu!" He collapsed onto his knees, fists pounding the earth, as his eyes shook with anguish. "I...know I'm guilty...of killing your parents..." was all that could be heard out of the kitsune's anguished words.

Naruto was surprised at how quickly this reconciliation had gotten out of hand. He meant to stop it, but then decided not to. Something was telling him that this had to happen.

Kaen continued to talk, raising his head to show unshed tears threatening to get away from his eyeballs. "I...was lost, after I was sealed away. I hadn't wanted to attack Konoha, but I was made to, and I paid a price after. I didn't know what to do anymore." As he continued talking, his voice got steadier, his thoughts more coherent. "Then you came. You were my host, and the only person I had met in a long time. I was struggling for a companion, and you fit the bill. I-I", Here, he began to choke, "I didn't want to chase you off. Had I told you I was the Kyuubi, I thought you would be scared of me, and never want to have anything to do with me again. So, instead, I became, merely Kaen."

---

It is generally accepted that, not having experience on their side, children can be the cruellest of them all. A playground bully does wrong in abusing others, but he has the advantage of not knowing better, as even though his capacity for empathy might be greater than most adult's, his ability to wield that empathy is low. By the time he becomes an adult, he either has reformed, realising how he has hurt others, or he continues to be a bully, but now fully understanding that what he is doing is wrong.

Kachu, being only a six-year-old, solidly fell into the category of being a child. Though she was no bully, she could be rash, and had not thought too much about Kaen's side of things. She had automatically assumed he was guilty of trying to deceive her for malicious reasons, and so had told him off. She later realised she could be wrong, which was why she had asked Naruto for help, leading up to this situation.

Kaen had taken all the blame on himself, but even still she felt guilty over having yelled at him earlier. Hearing now that he had been controlled in some manner to attack Konoha was bringing that guilt to the forefront of the maelstrom of emotions that swirled within her.

She _wanted_ to hate him. The last day had been one of the few times in her life that she had felt such strong negative emotions, and she needed something to direct her emotions at to make herself feel better. However, seeing Kaen now, crying, she was beginning to feel bad about earlier. She had truly hurt him, had she not?

She had stubbornly refused to consider making up before, and with good reason: Kaen _had_ deceived her, after all. Even now, it would take some time before she could fully trust him again. But, she had given him the benefit of the doubt, and hearing why he had done what he had...

Well, she couldn't forget, but she could..."I-I forgive you, Kaen."

---

Naruto nearly yelped in surprise. One moment, Kaen was pleading with his sister. A few minutes later, Kachu had flat-out forgiven Kaen for all the things he had hurt her over. Sighing, he let the two talk for a bit longer, as he decided to not eavesdrop on their conversation, trusting that Kachu knew what she was doing.

In fact, if he had to admit to himself, he was jealous: watching earlier, that feeling had crept up once the expressions on both redheads began to lighten up. Kaen seemed to know Kachu better than he did. Of course, he had a year's advantage on Naruto, but it was the principle of the matter! He was Kachu's older brother, he had to look out for her!

It was an odd and dynamical relation the two shared, he mused. Looking over, he saw that the two were practically twiddling fingers again. _Perfect_, Naruto thought to himself. Taking advantage of the lull in their conversation, he sauntered over, shadowing both of them with their taller body, and grabbing their collective attentions. "Kaen, I need to talk to you, _alone_, for a while." Directing an innocent smile at his sister, he asked her, "I hope you don't mind, imouto?"

Kachu was blushing red again, and shook her head, "N-No, aniki."

Satisfied, Naruto grabbed Kaen's shoulders, and redirected him away, forcing them to walk away. "Wh-what's going on?" Kaen growled. "What do you want?" Naruto ignored the fox-spirit's protests, walking the both of them away until he finally stopped at a point in the clearing opposite Kachu.

Deeming them to be a sufficient enough distance away so that Kachu could not overhear them, Naruto turned to Kaen, and quickly dropped the loaded question. "What are your intents to my sister?" He asked in the most overbearing manner that he could, letting his brotherly instincts out at full blast.

Kaen jumped at the question, and nearly yelped in surprise at how direct Naruto had asked it.

"Just kidding," Naruto said, giving Kaen an eye-smile. Now that he was confident Kaen wasn't bent on attacking him as virtue of his being the Kyuubi, he wanted to play the overprotective big brother at least once. Besides, he was talented at reading body and facial language, having trained with a Yamanaka in the past: he would tell if Kaen was genuine and sincere with his conversation here and now.

"W-what was that about?" Kaen grumbled under his breath, his earlier depressed mood having all but vanished with the three-way conversation.

"I am curious about one thing, however," Naruto said slowly, ignoring Kaen's grumblings and prompting an interested 'Oh?' from the redhead. "How is it that you manage to have even the slightest bit of control over this mindscape. I would have thought that the **Shiki Fuin** seal that otou-san devised would have prevented you from doing such a thing."

Kaen shivered at the sweet but deadly tone in Naruto's voice, but decided there was no harm in letting Naruto know just what had happened to him six years ago, right after the sealing. Facing Naruto directly, he started, "Well, you see..."

***Flashback – Six Years Ago, The Mindscape***

More than just binding his powers, the **Shiki Fūin **had also affected his soul, which bore his collective experience of hundreds of years since he first formed as the strongest of the nine remnants of the Juubi. He still possessed all the memories, but they were peripheral to his consciousness, resembling that object that was always just out of the reach of your eyes. The Death God's seal had forced his mental age to regress as it worked. His emotional maturity had vanished alongside his mentality, marking a shift in his capacity to deal with the maelstrom of shock, panic and depression he was currently feeling. Shock, at having lost to a human. Panic, at the consequences of being bound by the Shinigami. Depression, at the realisation of all that had happened to him, and the cell that he had been thrown into, surrounded by a sewer. So caught up in his own self-denial as he was, Kaen missed the sound of footsteps echoing throughout the chamber he had found himself in. As it got closer, he noted it only as a part of the white noise, joining the dripping of water from wet bars.

"Kyuubi?" A harsh voice chimed, and this time the kitsune spirit looked up. "Why are you parading around as a human?"

"_You!_" The six-year-old hissed, leaping at the blond Hokage, intent on tearing the Yondaime apart for what he had done.

The soul fragment of Yondaime may have been only a shadow of the real Namikaze Minato, but he (it?) still had all the memories that the Yondaime's full soul had. As such, he (it?) stood right where he (it?) was, letting Kaen hit the bars before being repulsed by the **Shiki Fuin**. Letting the fox try its hand at trying to get out, the Yondaime fragment mused over the puzzle that had been presented to him (it?). Why would the Kyuubi be taking the form of a six-year-old boy when he had already been sealed away? It was then that it clicked in his (its?) head.

"The seal didn't just seal away your power, did it..." Minato said breathlessly, "It also sealed away your form, and your age."

Kaen stopped, a small sliver of rationality forcing its way to the forefront of his thoughts. "Yes...yes, it did," He hissed, his rage slowly taking over again. "You took _everything_ from me. My power, my true body, even my _memories_ are fogging, and now I'm locked away in a sewer!"

Minato mused over the situation as Kaen continued to rant. He (it?) knew that the Kyuubi was a celestial spirit of sorts, a kitsune, a being which was irrevocably bound to its word. The bijuu was currently in a state of panic, and perhaps he (it?) could get something favourable out of this. Testing a quickly-forming idea in his (its?) head, he (it?) threw out a conversational bait. "I know already that you did not intentionally attack the village," He (it?) said slowly, "But rather that Uchiha Madara forced you to. I cannot free you from this seal. However, would you do anything to be freed from this sewer environment?"

It was with a private glee that the Yondaime observed Kaen turn around from another bout of madness, and fall down on his knees. His hands together, he was practically begging. "_Yes, please_, I'll do _anything_, I promise!" The fox-human said, not realising the consequences of his words.

"Anything?" the Yondaime quietly asked. "Very well..." Pausing to quickly summarise his full demands in his head, he began, "You will not under any circumstances try to injure or possess my daughter, your host." Kaen's eyes widened slightly at that sentence as he realised what he had earlier done. "That includes trying to escape from her, as it will kill her, and quite possibly kill you." Pacing about, the Yondaime fragment finished off with his (its?) last condition, "And if you do somehow manage to escape, alive, you will not harm any member of Konohagakure no Sato unless you or a comrade are attacked, or you can justify it under a need for stability in the Elemental Nations." The Namikaze turned to face Kaen one last time, with a glint in his (its?) eye. "And if you ever come across Uchiha Madara, you must try to kill him."

The power that kept the fragment of the Yondaime's soul fragment corporeal was quickly running out, and with a sigh he (it?) slowly began to disperse, but not before touching the seal that barred the Kyuubi from the rest of the mindscape. The **Shiki Fuin** had, in a sense, multiple 'layers' to it. The innermost layers were the ones that irrevocably prevented Kyuubi from escaping his host, secured as the Yondaime was unwilling to risk the possibility of Kyuubi being malicious in his intent of attacking Konoha. Some of the outermost were ones such as a seal clause that prevented the kitsune from moving about his host's mindscape at all: those ones could be unravelled from the outside of the seal, a bargaining chip that the Yondaime had planned on using if need be. Finding that Uchiha Madara had caused Kyuubi to attack was not sufficient enough for him (it?) to give freedom to Kyuubi: after all, the fox might still hold hatred towards Konoha for defeating him. That he had given his word, however much unintentionally, was. With the promises Minato had secured from the celestial spirit, he (it?) knew he (it?) could unravel some of those layers, which he (it?) had just done.

With the soul fragment's disappearance, Kaen sat down again as he felt the weight of the deal he had made settle on him. He had indeed promised to do anything to get out of that sewer, and the Yondaime had fulfilled his side of the bargain. Unconsciously, the scenery began to chance to that of a forest. Even though he was already a creature of the flame, a fire still burned in a small pit in front of him. It was oddly reassuring, the touch of heat on his skin.

He could already feel the fatique seeping into his mental avatar. He had been just freshly sealed into a newborn, and although he had never been sealed before, he had been told once that it was a huge drain on the energy of that which had been sealed. When Kaen finally fell asleep, he would hibernate for five years.

***Flashback End***

Naruto was silent for a few moments, as he went over the scene in his head that Kaen had described. Then, he spoke, "So otou-san truly was a genius."

Kaen nodded in an apathetic manner. "He didn't need to request any of those conditions, but I guess he needed to be sure."

"Oh?" Naruto asked, surprised at what the Kyuubi was implying.

"Yes," Kaen responded, nodding again in a feverish manner. "I am...or _was_...the guardian spirit of the Land of Fire, Hi no Kuni...balance and stability of the land are...or were...my mandate."

The flaxen-haired shinobi strummed his lips. "I see," he quietly said. "Your...memories? Yes, your memories were sealed away? That doesn't quite to seem be the case."

The kitsune in human form furiously shook his head this time. "Not quite, no. I still have my...memories," he explained, struggling to come up with the right words and phrases to define his predicament, "But it's like a fog to me. I know many things, but I cannot apply them properly. I've been reduced to a child!"

Kaen had difficulty conveying what he wanted to say, but Naruto understood nonetheless. Besides knowledge and body, what separated men from boys, and elders from men, was _experience_. The way Kaen described it made it sound like the experience he had built up over the years had been invalidated. While an old man's memories of his young days would be vague and biased with nostalgia, Kaen's situation was in reverse. The rules had changed for the fox spirit, leaving him with his memories but unable to use them for any practical purpose.

Naruto could perhaps sympathise with Kaen's situation, but he was still wary. "And you are bound to those conditions that the Yondaime gave you?"

"Yes," Kaen growled. "Like I already told you, I would have already followed them anyways. He took advantage of me in my moment of weakness and forced me into them. I don't like that."

The Namikaze heir let his eyes narrow at that. "You might not like it, but I would have done the same in that situation." Seeing Kaen try to speak again, he held up his hand. "You must remember that otou-san had no guarantee that you would not have immediately tried to escape the seal right after." Pausing for a second, he added on, "Nor that you would not have tried to finish the job that had been started, even if you originally were under somebody else's control."

Kaen had no response to that.

Turning around, now assured that the fox meant no harm to his person, Naruto mused out loud, "However, Uchiha Madara...that is something that needs to be dealt with." Interesting, to finally learn what had caused the attack. Of course, how Madara, a founding father of Konoha, still lived, was an issue that needed to be dealt with.

The red-head was quick to dispense with a growl at the name. "Madarrrra..." he said, rolling the r with a slur, "I know not how, but he has evolved his Sharingan to a stage where he can manipulate a creature's own inner chakra flow. That was how he managed to force me into attacking Konoha."

_That_ interested Naruto, as he turned around with a surprised look on his face. "Are you serious?"

Chakra was a mysterious thing, a component of life energy that Orochimaru of the Sannin had spent much of his life on researching. Even now, the usage of jutsus was crude and inefficient, and shinobi had to eat large amounts of food to keep up with the expended energy. Genjutsu, the art of illusions whereby the user would inject his chakra into his opponent's system, using it to distort his foe's perceptions, was about the purest form of chakra usage that had been devised. However, even genjutsu relied on a person's own chakra. Manipulating someone else's chakra was simply _impossible_.

Until now, it seemed.

"Yes," Kaen reaffirmed.

"I...see..." Naruto said, caught up in his own world again. _I believe ji-san will have to hear about this._ Truly, it was a troublesome dilemma. How could he fight someone who could use his own chakra system against him?

"Are you just about done?" A voice popped up next to Naruto, who would have jumped if not for the fact that he had detected Kachu walking over seconds ago.

"We are now, imouto-chan," Naruto responded, not losing a chance to tease his little sister with a double affectionate. It worked, if the small, sudden blush on her face was any indicator. Naruto was curious about one thing, however: looking around, he saw the fretful glances that Kachu had been sneaking at Kaen, and the dispassionate gaze Kaen kept as he stared away from the other two once Kachu had shown up. Suddenly, it clicked in his mind.

"Very well," he felt his lips moving, "I approve."

That caught the attention of both of the younger participants, who suddenly swung their heads around to look at him. Kachu in particular was nearly apoplectic with how quick she turned red. Even if she didn't understand what he was hinting at, her subconscious did to a degree. Pointing at him, she yelled "W-what do you mean?" with a slightly cute stutter.

"What do I mean?" Naruto parroted. _What do I mean_? He thought to himself. He saw the attraction between the two, even if it was a childhood crush on each of their parts. If they had already gotten over such an obstacle as Kaen being the Kyuubi no Kitsune, then the circumstances that they were in dictated a high chance of them eventually becoming smitten with each other. But could he, Kachu's older brother, her 'aniki', really be alright with that?

In the blink of an eye, he decided that he _was_ alright with it. They were irrevocably bound for life, even if it was by a seal, and he had already been assured Kaen had no malicious intent towards Kachu. Additionally, Naruto knew that perhaps Kaen would be the only one to 'truly' know Kachu. Even as her older brother, he still had not met her until she was six, and he would only have a month to spend with her, and then be gone for another year. When the two finally reunited in Konoha, who was to say that he would not be gone most of the time, perhaps even on a long-term mission? Kaen apparently was the only companion she had her own age, even if it was an odd relationship.

"What I mean," Naruto began again, deciding to smooth his meaning up and redirect the implications elsewhere, "Is that I am OK with the two of you meeting up again." Looking at Kaen, he gave the fox-turned-human a hard stare. "You are the only companion her own age that she has, even if it is under unusual circumstances. Even I, her own brother, cannot be around for her all the time."

"So you mean..." Kaen started, then let out a sigh of relief. Silence dominated the scene for a few moments, before Kaen spoke up with a question. "Are you going to tell others...about me?"

Kachu gasped, not having thought about that. Naruto hummed to himself when Kaen had voiced his concern. It didn't take much for him to come up with his decision, which he gave right away before Kaen and Kachu could become anxious. "No," the flaxen-haired shinobi said bluntly. "I see no need to inform anyone about your relationship, not even Rin-san. Others might not take quite as kindly to hearing about the Kyuubi freely being able to communicate with his host." Of course, that created a problem as to how he might communicate to the Sandaime that Uchiha Madara was responsible for the Kyuubi attack. He would have to figure an alternative way out to prove that without implicating Kaen.

"I...see..." was all that Kaen had to say, before he did something that shocked Naruto. The kitsune bowed in front of Naruto, his head low. "I thank you, Namikaze Naruto." The image of the _Kyuubi_ being submissive was quite the surprise.

"I...ah...shucks, no need to thank me," Naruto responded, before he felt a wave of fatique pass through his body. _Kuso, already?_ Turning to face Kachu to bring her back into the conversation, he continued to talk to Kaen. "It was nice meeting you, Kaen...however, I am not a natural resident of this soulscape, and it costs me energy to stay here. I..." He gritted his teeth as his body was tiring out again, "Need to go soon."

Kachu wasn't one to be left out of the verbal communication, however. Moving forward, she grabbed Kaen's hands, gripping them hard in a show of companionship. Turning her green eyes around, she nervously spoke to her brother again. "Ah...aniki? Thank you...for e-everything..." She began to hiccup again.

"It was no problem," Naruto said, smoothly moving forward to pick her up as she relinquished her grip on Kaen. Finally feeling the conversation at an end, he turned to face Kaen one last time. "I hope to meet you again, Kaen," he said with a nod, one which the kitsune returned. As he felt himself fading away from the mindscape, he decided to interject with one last statement. "And if you ever break my sister's heart again...I'll destroy you."

It was totally worth it, Naruto mused as he finally faded out, to see Kaen's mortified expression.

As Naruto's avatar finally disappeared, so did Kachu, leaving Kaen all alone in the area. Looking to face the canopy of the forest clearing, he mused. It had been an odd turn of events. He had been devastated when Kachu had told him she hated him, which had led to his curling up and crying through the night. He may not have a strong grasp on his memories of his past, but he for sure knew that he had never felt these kinds of emotions. Was this what it mean to...live?

A gut-wrenching feeling, followed by a warm swell in his body. He had no name to give these feelings, no idea of what they meant. It would bear thinking.

As Kaen went to sit down at the tree base to take another nap, the events having emotionally exhausted him, he barely noticed the forest change: the mist dispersed, the trees turned from their gray gnarly forms to a regular brown, and the treetops broke to let in warm rays of light that lulled his still form to sleep.

---

The light of day pressed itself against Naruto's closed eyelids. Quickly shaking off the disorientation wrought by his mental perception in the transition from an otherworldly plane to the physical realm, he looked around, noting that barely a second had passed.

Kachu seemed to be standing upright again, though, as opposed to the dull gait she had come to visit Naruto with. Her pose did not last long, however, as she suddenly collapsed into his arms. Catching her quickly, Naruto was unsurprised. After all, it _had_ been a very emotional day for her, by all accounts. As she looked up again at him, he had to stop himself from blushing at how cute she looked there, with her dimpled nose and her light frown. "Aniki?" She asked drowsily.

"Shush, now," Naruto said, putting a finger up to her lips, before picking her up in a fetal position. "It hasn't been that long of a day," He admitted, "But perhaps it's best you get some rest again. I still have three weeks left."

"Mmkay..." Kachu said, quietly, finally content with her lot in life. "When we get back...can you help me with Rin-nee-chan?"

"Hmmm...alright," Naruto responded, taking a slow walk, being careful not to sneeze with the red hair in his face. Idly, he looked up at the sun as he walked out. Amusing himself, he tried to assign a metaphor to the scene – the rising sun was the dawn of a new part of the lives of his sister and her prisoner.

That same red dawn metaphor would haunt the two years down the road, however.

---

Kachu felt revitalised by the day's events. It had been emotionally exhausting, and physically only a few hours had passed by for her. Most of all, however, was the promise Kaen had given to her while Naruto-aniki had turned away from their conversation.

"_I promise,"_ He had said, _"That I will be your friend forever, and never try to deceive you again."_

She would hold him to that.

**---**

**Haha I told you that Yamanaka Inoka would actually have a use. In this case of the 'convenient plot device to get Naruto a technique that allows him to intrude on mindscapes'. She won't entirely be a throwaway character so we'll actually be seeing her in the future.**

**This is the end of the first story arc, which hopefully was satisfying to all you readers so far. The next arc of course will involve Kachu returning to Konoha with Rin, and all the drama that involves as the second Namikaze is unveiled to the public. As for what else happens, well, you'll just have to wait and see ;). I'll be working on a bit of **_**A Midsummer Night's Dream**_** before coming back to this, as I need time to flesh out the scenes in my head, which is usually the cause for me taking up to a week between chapters a lot of times with my fics (winter blues and university are responsible for my multi-month hiatuses). After all, I'm not copying canon nearly scene for scene with only a few gender benders and personality adjustments (oh snaps)! Truthfully, it really is just a simple matter of me needing to rejuice before I continue working on any one story, or else my writing becomes dull and uninspired. Like parts of this chapter were. Some of the scenes I had a difficult time figuring out how to end. Shit some of the conversation is stilted as well.**

**Actually, tbqh I should have proof-read this before putting it up but I really didn't feel like it. Oh well, sorry if it seems a bit jarring at times.**

**---**

**Review Responses;**

Twilight Dragoon Fighter**: As you can see in this chapter, Kaen will NOT be getting out. Oh sure, he will eventually get out, it would be cruel of me not to let them get together in the physical plane, but for now they will get to angst over never being able to be together on the outside world, at least not until the solution presents itself. Besides which, it would be a simple cop-out if I did that; I mean, c'mon, the Kyuubi no Kitsune is out, and isn't utterly slaughtering everything that presents a threat to his romantic interest? Oro and three quarters of the Akatsuki would be mince-meat way too easily if I did that. Otherwise then I'd have to restrict his power like big big time.**

Lil-lo**: Unfortunately, I have a decent amount of the plot and timeline done up in my head. It's a bit hard to move their ages forward with how I have it worked out, plus it screws up some of the parallelism I have planned with canon.**

schnookums: **I shot for Kachu to be of the sort of light-hearted nature, but serious when needed. This chapter was a bit hard since Naruto sort of overshadows her, but her own character will break out fairly soon.**


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